Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts

30 August 2011

Feminism.

Most people would probably say that I am one of those traditional sort of people. I believe that the best place for a woman is in her home with her children, and it's a man's responsibility to support his family. Now, I understand completely that in this day and age it's very difficult to make ends meet. We're no longer in the 50s, where mom can stay at home and dad can go to work and come home from his 9 to 5. However, if it's possible, I don't see why it shouldn't be that way.

As I was growing up, I was always told "Don't let people drag you down for being a woman. You can be whatever you want to be, do whatever you want to do." The part that they seemed to have forgotten to mention is that I could be whatever I wanted SO LONG AS I DID WHAT THEY WANTED, WHICH IS TO GET MY ASS IN GEAR AND HAVE A HIGH PAYING CAREER.

What I did and always have wanted was to be a stay at home mother, but in this society more often than not SAHMs are considered too lazy to work, uncaring and unmindful of the hard work that their mates put in to support their family. They're often espoused as sitting around the house all day, eating bon-bons and watching daytime soaps. Factually, this is rarely true at all. I know it's certainly not the case for me!

Working out of the home is a woman's choice, just like any other choice, and I'd never like to see that taken away. There were a couple of good things that came from the women's movement (one of them being suffrage), but I personally believe that so many families throwing their children into day care has done a lot of harm to society. I think working it out so that a mother can raise her children herself would be of tremendous benefit to all of society.

You can't do it, you say? Too many bills, not enough income without the two paychecks? Try cutting back. Try living more frugally. Use coupons. Shop wisely. Take only one vacation a year instead of two. Cut up those credit cards. Stop borrowing money. Stop feeling the need to have whatever is current and new NOW instead of saving up for it. It's not hard to do, but many Americans wouldn't even bother trying. They're happy with their lives, or at least they think they are.

I sit outside sometimes in the evenings and watch the neighbors pull in from work. They come with their two brand new cars, shuttling their preschool-aged children from daycare into the house. I've never once seen these people play outside with their kids. Hell, sometimes I didn't even realize they had kids for months! How can they think they have the good life when their children are growing up without them, spending every day from seven in the morning till six at night with someone else? I don't know. I just don't think it's right or fair to both parents or their children. Maybe they don't see any other way to do it.

I just find it incredibly sad.

Ladies...Grow Up!

I saw a post on one of my mom's groups asking why the ladies on the board loved their husbands. Except for a very small handful, most EVERY woman said something akin to "because my husband gives me whatever I want, takes me places, buys me THINGS" and so on and so forth.

Whatever happened to loving the small stuff? Why must women be BOUGHT like whores in order to be happy?

I'll tell you what. K and I are dirt poor. We're living in his mother's house without a dime to our names. All we've got is our car, our happiness together, and the goodwill of my MIL for letting us stay in her home. Am I unhappy? Hell no! I have my man and my son, and between the two, they give me The Greatest Joy in my life. I don't sit here and worry about what things I want. My needs are met, when they're actually NEEDED.

Most people would be too stressed out about MONEY to be able to be happy living this way. Most ladies would be harping on their husbands to get a job, or get a BETTER job, but not me! It'll come in its time, when we need it. In this economy, how can one spend all their time worrying over things that could just as well be gone tomorrow?

Take the time to analyze your relationships, ladies. If you're happy in your marriage because your husband does things for you or gets you pretty little presents, you have absolutely no idea what happiness truly is! A look, a smile, holding hands in public like teenagers, staying connected. These are the sort of things that are truly important, and without them life is, frankly, hollow.