Many people, Oprah included, often hail moms, especially stay at home moms, as those with the hardest and most important job in the world. However, misconceptions about our day to day lives are prevalent. When I tell people I’m a stay at home mom, I’m often met by condescension, confusion, or indifference. In a society that measures success through job descriptions, where does the stay at home mom fit?
I talk with Alyssa, stay at home mom and blogger at adventuresofthestayathomemom.com about this job. How does she keep her son amused? What is the hardest part of the day? The most rewarding? And what does the internet have to do with all this?
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Over the last fifteen years, the number of stay at home moms has been increasing. In 2003, Lisa Belkin published an article in The New York Times called “The Opt-Out Revolution,” leading many to believe this increase was the result of educated women choosing to forgo a career in order to stay at home with the kids. However, in the last couple years, this revolution has been revealed as a myth; most stay at home moms are younger, less educated, and of a lower socio-economic class, but this does not mean the overeducated stay at home mom doesn’t exist, nor that this phenomenon should be dismissed.
I talk with Alex Iwashnyna of lateenough.com, a popular blogger and stay at home mom who left a career in medicine to stay at home with her kids. She reveals that opting out is not a jump from career to home, but rather a complicated and subtle process.
Articles:
“The Opt-Out Revolution” by Lisa Belkin in The New York Times, 26 October 2003.
“Most Stay-at-Home Moms Start That Way, Study Finds” by Donna St. George in The Washington Post, 1 October 2009.
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