Do You Know What I Do All Day?
Many women struggle with the question of whether to return to work after having a baby. Some make the decision to stay at home, particularly when their children are young, especially those who have children a year old or younger. The debate over whether to stay at home or whether to work has been raging ever since it became commonplace for women to work the same types of jobs as men. However, it has been estimated by salary.com http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2008/06/the-value-of-a.html that the value of a stay-at-home mom in compensation is worth about $117,000; about the same as that of many prestigious professions.
Ways to Show Your Value
Some stay-at-home moms may have partners who don't quite see their value, however, and who may need a little help acknowledging just how much they do. Some stay-at-home moms who were working women also feel as if they undervalued by society because of their lack of a paycheck, according to drdaveanddee.com http://www.drdaveanddee.com/momsalary.html.
One of the things you can do as a stay-at-home mom is to speak with your partner about all that you do if you are feeling unappreciated. Write down all of the things that you do in one day, from taking care of your young child to preparing meals to laundry to cleaning and organizing. Once you write everything down, both you and your spouse are likely to be amazed at every task you take on.
Organize a 'switch' day between you and your partner. Try for a weekend or a day when he does not have to go to work. On this day, have him do everything that you as a stay-at-home mom would normally do. From the list of tasks that you take on in a normal day, make a schedule for him and see if he can complete the list in a certain period of time. Once he's had a taste of what it's like to go through a day as a stay-at-home mom of a one-year-old, he might begin to understand your value.
If you want to be more subtle and you don't think it would irritate your partner too much, you could purposely neglect to do one of the things you normally do, such as the laundry. It might help him see the difference between being a stay-at-home mom and just staying at home doing nothing, which he could possibly be mistaking for the same thing.
An Extra Step
If you want to further show your value, you might invest in taking classes to maintain or update your skills, or find part-time work-from-home jobs that you can do, so that you are not only holding down the household but also contributing to the family income. This is useful in case you decide in the future that you want or need to return to the workforce.
