Salary.com is running a special article right now that details the pay that stay-at-home mothers would earn if they were compensated for all the work they do during the day. According to the study, a stay-at-home mom would earn $$134,121 dollars a year based on a 51.6 hour work-week. A working mom - a mother who works outside the home - would earn $85,876 dollars a year based on a work week of 49.8 hours. (I don't know how they came up with the different hours - it doesn't seem quite right to me.)
Some of the job titles or functions that Salary.com says stay-at-home moms perform include housekeeper, day care teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry operator, janitor, CEO, facilities manager, van driver, and psychologist. I think they left out a few. How about CFO, EMT, nurse, event planner, and coach?
Being a mom is not only the most complex job in the world, but it is also the most important. Moms shape the entire lives of their children simply from their presence, the example they set, the values they teach, and the support they provide. Stay-at-home moms choose to make sacrifices in lifestyle in order to raise their children and be the primary caretaker.
The attitude in society is starting to swing back to the positive about mothers that choose to be a fulltime mom rather than pursue a career during the formative years of their children's lives. In the seventies, the feminist movement created a social stigma that surrounded the woman who chose to stay at home to raise her children. In that generation, having a career was utmost and any woman that chose to be a mom, was a traitor to womanhood. Now, you can go to any park or playground on a sunny morning and find well-educated women there with their children, enjoying the outdoors and chatting about crock-pot dinners and shoes. Being a mom is not a social stigma anymore.
Other than my own mother and my mother-in-law, I know two very special moms. One is a stay-at-home new mother and one is a working mother. The new mother and her husband just had their first child, a girl, after 17 long years of marriage. This particular woman is well-educated and held a high management position with a national non-profit. She decided not to return to the workplace almost before bringing her little one home from the hospital and walk away from a career in which she was earning nearly six figures. It means a bit of a lifestyle change for her and her husband. He makes an excellent salary and is well-capable of supporting the family but they won't have the extra play money they've enjoyed for most of their marriage. It's a sacrifice they both are more than willing to make.
The other mother of note is an assistant principal in a public school. After a short marriage, she and her husband divorced and parted ways. She had always wanted children so she decided to adopt a child from overseas. She went to Ukraine with full intentions of selecting a girl from the orphanage population there but ended up choosing a little boy. It was definitely a divine intervention because she could not have had a child more like herself if it had been biological. She and her son are a family and she shoulders all the parental responsibility. Everyday, her son tells her Mommy, I'm so glad you picked me.
Is your Mom being well-paid by you in terms of gratitude and respect? Being a mom is a tough job and there are no sick days, no retirement plans, no vacation days. It's a lifetime job that you can't step down from. Why not call your mom and say thanks?