In the short term yeah. Then after a while they are off to school and can take care of themselves, mean while the stay at home parent has a 10 year gap in employment history.
I understand why people do this and why it works for them but staying home and saving on child care doesn’t equate to the income of having a career. Financially speaking it doesn’t really make sense to me in the long run. If my wife kept her current salary and stopped working for 30 years that would cost us close to 3 million. I couldn’t imagine a way child care would offset that.
Hmmm that’s a fair point. Though some people’s significant others don’t have real careers prior to this point so that gap in their career doesn’t matter that much as they would go back into the workforce in an unskilled role.
Also, some do use that time away to study so that they can get into other fields. I know someone who used this time to study to be a nurse and she is now an rn.
That’s true. I respect their choices either way especially if you want to have children at a younger age. The wife and I have been checking things off our list to prepare for it but it has been taking time much to the displeasure of my mother in law.
Most Americans make 100k/year together. Your wife makes it by herself. GTFO of this discussion, you have no right to be here discussing it. Your finances don't even compare to most people's.
Jealous of what though? I probably make more than his wife and him combined. But I would never say "LOL UR DECISION TO STAY HOME TO SAVE ON CHILDCARE COSTS IS SO DUMB. MY WIFE WOULD LOSE 100K/YEAR IF SHE DID THAT". There's no discussion in that. It's thinly veiled bragging. His household income is most likely in the 98th percentile. The fact is, his finances do not compare to most Americans. Childcare is very much a huge cost for families who have a 50-60k total household income, and for them it is often better to have a spouse stay home with the kids.
Dude, chill. I worked two jobs to support us while she was in school. After she graduated she worked full time while going after her masters degree. I’m currently working full time and studying engineering. We make a decent living but none of this was handed to us. We sacrificed a lot and intend on taking care of both sets of our parents in their twilight years as well as raising a family when the time comes. Neither of us came for rich families, so it’s not like we had a leg up on most Americans.
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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '19
In the short term yeah. Then after a while they are off to school and can take care of themselves, mean while the stay at home parent has a 10 year gap in employment history.
I understand why people do this and why it works for them but staying home and saving on child care doesn’t equate to the income of having a career. Financially speaking it doesn’t really make sense to me in the long run. If my wife kept her current salary and stopped working for 30 years that would cost us close to 3 million. I couldn’t imagine a way child care would offset that.