Several recent articles have reported on the growing number of millennials who want to have traditional families where the father works and the mother stays home with the children. To test this theory, I asked my 17 year old son (so, technically, he’s really generation Z), if he wanted his future wife to someday stay home with their children. He got a funny look on his face and said, “Well, the answer to that is obvious.” Clearly to me it wasn’t, so I pushed further and he said, “Of course I want her to stay home. Unless she’s a radiologist and makes a ton of money, then I’ll stay home with the kids and run my four Chick-fil-A franchises and car wash from my home office.”
That boy always has a plan.
At this point, most of my girlfriends who stayed home with young children are now returning to the workplace. Something called, “college tuition” has motivated us. Interestingly, most aren’t picking up where we left off in our 30’s, but are trying out different fields. Former teachers and financial specialists are now becoming real estate agents, chefs, saleswomen, artists and small business owners. Some love the stress-free option (and discounts) of working in a shop they don’t own.
What has made this younger generation want to revert to the stay-at-home mom family? Have they grown up being bothered . . . click HERE to read the rest of the story at AL.com. Thanks for reading!
Great article Leslie Anne! What I have experienced personally is how wonderful it is that Dad’s are more domestically involved these days, my son packs lunches, does laundry, homework etc, and my son-in-law actually irons {my bad, I can’t iron and passed it down to my daughter} …anyway they both do much more than my husband ever did simply because as a stay at home mom, I felt it was my job to do everything. Now that my husband has retired he’s cleaning, doing laundry, cooking and grocery shopping, all the stuff I am sick of! Yes we’ve come a long way baby!
I think your children had a good mother to teach them to help!
Leslie Anne, I’ll be very interested to see what women of all ages have to say here about this subject. I grew up in a time when very few mothers of my friends and classmates worked and my mom never did when we girls were at home, so I accepted that was normal and was so glad to be able to quit work and stay home myself. For many decades I worked at home as secretary and bookkeeper for our family business, but our only daughter very strongly believes that women should be able to support themselves and have a career. She loves and thrives in being a career woman.
But I also see so many young bloggers now who are loving living a life more like their grandmothers lived, gardening and farming, sewing and canning and preserving, homeschooling. I love that the old crafts and homemaking skills are being practiced and passed on to their daughters–who in turn when they grow up may decide to become lawyers and doctors!
As you wrote so eloquently of, the freedom to be able to choose is so important!
Choice is what its all about these days. I can clearly see and understand both opinions. Very interesting trends, indeed.