Can't Dads Get "Out," Too?
Posted on 01. Dec, 2006 by Brian Reid in General
Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal — the dean of the work-family reporters — let loose today with a preview of some new data about women who are staying home after the kids arrive. (Whether these women “opted out” of the workforce or were “pushed out,” remains a lively debate, and Lisa Belkin, who coined the Opt-Out turn-of-phrase took on a pro-”push” Joan Williams in an interesting back-and-forth. But that’s another discussion.)
At any rate, the nice folks over the Census Bureau were nice enough to leak some upcoming data to Shellenbarger. The information appears to show that the participation of moms in the labor force is falling across the board, not just amoung those rich enough to do it. This is all well and good, and I look forward to the full data coming out so that I can paw through it.
But … once again, these numbers will never be enough to tell the full story. When women leave the workplace for family reasons, it’s usually a family decision. What the dads doing in those families? Even if the Census stats won’t capture that, I’d love to see someone — and Shellenbarger is as good a candidate as any — explore that dynamic in some depth. (And all of this leaves aside an altogether interesting and important question: are more dads opting out? If not … why? But no one really cares enough to gather *those* stats.)
Elizabeth
01. Dec, 2006
Heather Boushey wrote a paper last year in which she pointed out that the labor force participation of women without children was falling too, and argued that it was the economy rather than an “opt-out” phenomenon. I’ll be interested to see what the data look like when they’re available.
trophyhusband (Andy F.)
04. Dec, 2006
Let’s parse the math in the first sentence:
“It wasn’t easy for Heather Brandon to stay home during her babies’ first year of life. It meant a two-thirds drop in her family’s income to below $30,000″.
Uh, so this means she made around $60 grand, TWICE as much money as her husband, yet they decided to have HER drop out of the work force plunging the family in “thrift-store clothes and eating “a lot of rice and beans”.”
I’m sure there are many other factors, but this sure sounds to me like a family ripe for an at-home Dad…
I know Sue’s column wasn’t about at-home Dads and she was just crafting a catchy lead-in to her column, but so often having Dad stay home would be a very logical solution to a work-family challenge she brings up.
RD: it’s worth emailing your thoughts to Sue…I responded a few years ago to a column she wrote about some challenges a family was facing with the suggestion that the simple solution to have Dad stay home was totally overlooked. She ended up writing a column about exactly that just a few weeks later…
- Andy
domestic_slackstress_kim
05. Dec, 2006
From one who opted out of a dream $70,000 per year high-profile L.A. newsroom job to make absolutely zilch staying home with my three kids (I began my ongoing stint as a SAHM with the advent of my first son some six years ago … ugh) I can tell you only about my own experiences. We are broke-ass beyond broke. I could go back to work and hopefully make a little more than before. However, with child care upwards of $800 per child (that’s a hell of a lot times three kids) before you count the gas money to pick up and drop them off, who can afford to go back to work at all? It’s insane. We can win either way. I feel my children are getting a higher quality foundation (emotionally, morally, socially) by staying home with an active mom who engages them, showers them with affection and takes them on exciting, educational outings ever single week. Add in the cost of preschool for a max of 8 hours a week for additional socialization skill building/friend networking as well as a much-needed break for exhausted mom, and being a stay-home parent is a very expensive endeavor/sacrifice. See, I even left dads out of my comment by accident. Kind of like the media/establishment. Sorry dads. Have you read any of the father studies by Dr. Kyle Pruett? I interviewed him a while back regarding the release of his then new book titled Fatherneed. A good read founded on well-fleshed-out facts.
domestic_slackstress_kim
05. Dec, 2006
Holy grammar errors. You can see how my journalism skills have atrophied from stay home mom-dom. Sorry.
Rebel Dad
05. Dec, 2006
Oh — we *love* Kyle Pruett around here … thanks for the “Fatherneed” suggestion.