A few weeks ago, Mother in Israel put up an excellent post, Frugal Strategies for Young Families That Pay Off as Your Children Grow, or in essence, invest a little brains and work now and it'll save you a ton of both - and money - later on.
What's particularly good about the list is that it not only helps the parents, but in the long run, the kids themselves will be more independent and capable in addition to simply being more skilled, mature, and responsible.
One of the most fascinating things to me as a parent is simply watching my kids trying to do something, then either figuring it out, coming up with something creative, or the like. Kayla likes to stare out from her pack 'n play when she wakes up, but she's too short to see over it. She always stands on a boppy pillow or something similar to get her head over the edge to see. Today, Elianna took a mini-stroller and rolled it up a slide onto a jungle gym; then later, trying the same on a different (and thinner) slide, was having trouble, since the wheels were too wide. She was in the process of balancing the wheels on the edges of the slide when another kid came along and grabbed the other end of the stroller to ruin it, but it was an impressive transition from one minute and one attempt to the next.
Check out her list, which is a good, simple, easy one to follow. My only quibble is with #6, and we probably mostly agree; it's not that daycare is a problem, it's the assumption that working more while sending kids to daycare or babysitting will make the family more money when it's often not the case (or will have minimal effect for a lot of work).
I'm not taking a position on SAHMs versus working moms. Yes, it may be true that by the time you figure in childcare expenses and traveling expenses and any other expenses you have if you work that you aren't coming home with any profit to put towards regular family expenses. But what I don't see mentioned that should be is that making a larger salary, finding a better, higher level job can depend on experience. You start out at X amount and work your way up.
ReplyDeleteIf a woman opts out of outside work for let's say ten years, when she does go out to work she's going to start out on the lower end of the salary scale--she's a newbie no matter how old she is. She's going to start out 10 years behind as far as salary expectations go. At that point the family may not have to worry about child care expenses, but they will be incurring much higher tuition expenses. The same argument about her working not actually covering what she is working to cover could be made then. A woman who worked for those ten years has moved up in the ranks as regards salary and position. She's making more at a time when she might need more.
So arguing about the money angle of working versus SAHMs is only a part of the equation that needs looking at.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteWhile I often cite the net gain of almost zero as a reason I'm not working now, I'd still take a job if I thought it would advance my career. I will not, however, take a job that does not do so and lose money in the process.
Ezzie-I agree with you that taking a job that losses money in the process is a bad idea for the short term. Unless the primary income is bringing in a surplus and there is no debt, the short term is exceedingly important.
ReplyDeleteBut a career path can come from the most unexpected places. I wouldn't rule out a job that doesn't send you further into the hole based on the assumption that it won't advance your career. That is simply too hard to predict.
As for the daycare quibble, I'm still old fashioned enough to believe that being at my family's disposal is valuable in and of itself. Fortunately, Hashem has blessed us so that this is an option.
I don't care to compare the known with the unknown. I do know that the job I left (the known) would not leave us with much after taxes and daycare. I do not know where I might potentially be should mazal fall on my side (unknown).
Every family needs to make their own cheshbon. For us, taking on a small business while remaining a homemaker primarily works much better than me going out and adding a second fulltime income, while still having to take on the majority of the household tasks because my husband still will still be out of the home from the early morning and for 11-12 hours and just isn't much of a Mr. Mom.
For those where the father is more capable, well, I can see a different cheshbon developing.
I wouldn't rule out a job that doesn't send you further into the hole based on the assumption that it won't advance your career. That is simply too hard to predict.Agreed; I mean that when it seems like it will not, and there IS that short-term loss, it simply wouldn't make sense to take the job.
ReplyDeleteIn our specific case, the jobs I could probably have gotten in the past 8 months would have been very dead-end jobs with losses. I'm rather enjoying being DaddyDayCare instead while looking for something better. :)
Ezzie, is there any way to get blogger to fix the problem (that was introduced about a month ago) that blank lines after formatting (like italicizing) disappeared?
ReplyDeleteMark
No, I've noticed the same. It's kind of annoying.
ReplyDelete