Quote:
Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale
My Mom never worked when I was growing up, and actually never did. Dad retired at 55. But aside from going to work he is absolutely useless at literally everything, has been on the wrong side of every social issue in history, has no friends, no hobbies, and has done nothing for the last 17 years but smoke cigarettes and watch TV.
|
Your life's story is interesting to me, and really goes to show how our opinions about "homemakers" are molded by experience. Your mom was a positive contributor to your life, teaching you all sorts of skills and being able to actually have conversations with you, as opposed to your closed-minded father who worked until age 55. My experience is that the amount of time spent working a "real job" was completely disconnected from how much my parents did around the house and were positive contributors to my life.
My parents both worked full-time when I was growing up, but my mother worked a 9-5 office job as a secretary/admin assistant while my dad worked in the construction industry, and owned and operated a business for a few years when I was a kid. She had much, much more free time than he did, and she did SFA around the house other than sit on her ass and watch TV. Had she been a "SAHM" I
guarantee she wouldn't have been any less useless and disinterested at home than she was in the evenings and weekends when she had a full-time job. She didn't support my father's business efforts whatsoever, and was a dour, negative influence overall. She still resents him for having "ruined" them financially with that business, but what really did them in was her profligate spending on junk. To her, "balancing the chequebook" meant she was the one "good with money"; she still doesn't (and never will) understand the difference.
She "retired" at age 59 (she was laid off in an O&G downturn and never got another job), while my dad still works. She's like your dad: absolutely useless at everything, no friends, no hobbies, done nothing for years but watch TV. She is the simpleton philistine with few brain cells to spare. My dad was the one who taught me things, the one I could have conversations about social issues with, the one who'd go out and do things with me—movies, camping, whatever. (And that was still pretty sparse; he wasn't around much.)
So, that's what colours my opinion of "homemakers": my mother was a lazy, useless twit around the house whether she worked full-time or not, but at least the full-time job brought money in. She otherwise brought no "value" to the household. Had she been a "homemaker" it would have been absolutely disastrous for my family.