The Value of SAHMs

Over the past four decades, more and more women have entered the work force—not necessarily out of personal desire, but more often out of economic necessity. Thus, the number of women who make caring for their children and home is dwindling. Many of those same stay-at-home moms (SAHMs) also seek home-based, part-time work, which is typically scarce and poorly compensated.

In addition to making economic and career sacrifices, SAHMs also suffer from the disdainful comments of friends, neighbors, and former co-workers. A SAHM’s work is undervalued and often dismissed with an “Oh, you don’t work. How lucky you are.” Little recognition is given to the fact that SAHMs pick up the slack for their working neighbors—they are the room mothers, the adults who chaperone school field trips, the neighbor who’ll baby sit when schools close for a minor holiday, and the ones listed on the emergency contact lists of every child in the neighborhood. On occasion, they’ll even take in a neighbor’s sick child.

One could also argue that SAHMs work just as hard as women who work outside the home. Yes, the same chores and issues face both groups of women, but SAHMs are less likely to buy prepared food at the supermarket or to eat out frequently. They do their own laundry and ironing, avoiding dry cleaning bills. Other services, including household repairs and gardening, are tackled to save money, because the SAHM usually has more time (though not much) than money.

Clearly, SAHMs make a major contribution to their communities. Not only are they available as mentors, guides, and educators of their own children, they avail themselves of all of the children in their neighborhood. In addition, they volunteer at school, chaperone field trips, drive kids to lessons, and generally perform the traditional functions associated with motherhood. And, those important contributions are mostly likely compensated only by a smile and a thank you, if that!

Equal Time for Cats

From the Associated Press:

Honda Motor Co. has designed a car that’s friendly for dogs…A special crate for dogs glove apartment [sic] allows owners to interact with their pets while driving. A bigger crate pops up from the floor in the back seat area nad can be folded back into the floor when it’s not needed.

Just think--dog lovers can now buy a car for their beloved pets. Of course, drivers won't be distracted as they "interact" with their canine friends, tossing them doggie biscuits and scratching their bellies as they drive.

Of course, now my cats will want their own vehicle complete with litter box and catnip cushions.

SAHMs Unite!

I belong to a writing forum where one of the discussion threads has been addressing pay rates for writing web content. Many of the people who sign on for rates well below the minimum wage are stay-at-home moms (or SAHMs), trying to supplement the family income. Most are well qualified, having had careers prior to adopting the SAHM role that gave them writing experience. Many were teachers, copy writers, and PR or ad writers.

Strangely, many of these talented and experience women are willing to accept hourly or piece rates that would put them well below the poverty level if they did not have a second income in the family. I think this willingness to accept low rates of pay is a reflection of US society's view of the SAHM in our US culture. In previous generations, mothers who stayed at home with their children got a bit more respect. Now, a SAHM is likely to encounter comments, such as "Oh, you don't work," as if child raising and household management involved no labor. Clearly, we've devalued the role of a mother and homemaker who chooses to stay at home. Unfortunately, many women have accepted this economic devaluation as an inevitable result of their SAHM role.

Somehow, I think that some of the employers who recruit web content writers have rationalized that they are doing SAHMs a big favor by offering them a pittance for their talent. They view SAHMs as "desperate" women, bored and looking for something to keep them busy. Instead, they are really taking advantage of a large pool of talent whose options have been limited by the choice to raise their own children and manage their own homes.

While the Internet has opened the SAHM's world to communication with other adults and to intellectual stimulation, it has also created a new kind of "captive labor," in which employers pay poverty level wages. In addition, a quick review of web content shows that emphasis is on quantity rather than quality. So, if a non-English speaker in India or some other part of Asia offers to work for a couple of dollars an hour, they'll be selected over a competent professional writer asking for a living wage.

The only way to resolve this is for SAHMs, who are web content writers, to realize their own worth and to reject jobs that pay too little. Also, for jobs that originate in the USA, they should contact the appropriate state labor boards and, if appropriate, the US Department of Labor to file complaints against those offering less than minimum wage.

In addition, SAHMs who've gotten experience writing web content should collect their writing samples and apply for other writing jobs, both in print and online. In addition, they should look for contract writing jobs that can be completed from home. Use online resources like "Writers Market" and Craigslist to locate opportunities and become more aggressive about seeking work that pays fairly.

Living with Fire

One of the earliest memories of my childhood consists of dragging garden hoses to my mother as she fought a brush fire encroaching on our backyard. I think I was six or seven the first time I played junior fire fighter.

In the 1940s, many of the hilly urban areas within a ten-mile radius of downtown Los Angeles were covered with wild oats and other highly flammable brush. Our street consisted of what would be described in the wild as a box canyon within a hillside. There was one way in and the same way out, unless you were prepared to hike out over brush-covered hills.

Every year, there was at least one brush fire either behind our place or behind our neighbors across the street. Through some acoustical oddity, we could hear a fire crackling and popping behind our neighbors, but not behind our home.

Because there was only a single exit from our hill, I was conditioned, even as a very young child, to pop out the front door whenever fire engines screamed up our street. To this day, fire sirens give me both an adrenaline rush and a sense of dread.

Because of that childhood experience, I swore that I would never again live in one of Southern California’s brushy hillside areas. I no longer wanted to experience what we familiarly call “brushers.”

So, a few years ago, I bought a condominium in the middle of a valley on flat land in a tree-shaded neighborhood, flanked by green stretches of park land and school grounds. Unfortunately, I failed to notice that the valley, which is about 6 miles long and 3 miles wide, is ringed on all three sides by foothill and mountain terrain, covered by dense and often tinder-dry brush.

Now, twice in two years I’ve been effectively trapped in that valley with only one way out—one way that has to be shared with about a hundred thousand of my neighbors—as fire engulfed the pass that is our outlet to the east. Two years ago, the hills and mountains to our north burned. Right now, the mountains to our south are being devastated by a veritable fire storm. The winds have died down, but the fire is so large it’s creating its own winds.

I guess fires, like earthquakes, are inevitable if you choose to live in sunny Southern California. They are the tradeoff for beautiful beaches, mountains, and deserts in close proximity to each other.