I'll run you over with my mini-van, who would ever convict a SAHM?

My father-in-law send me this link about this new show today because I think he thinks it is amusing and a little mind-boggling that mothers who stay at home catch so much flack from their friends who work. He lives in, and raised children in, Mormon world. For those of you not familiar with Mormon world, there are a lot of stay at home moms there, I would say from my limited experience, far more than the national average of thirty percent. So I think he finds my world where I am the only stay at home mom that I know, very strange. I know that there are more out there, but most of the moms I see in the library and stuff are very anxious to tell me that they work part-time, they freelance, they consult, or they are watching someone else's kids. Most of my friends, think I'm crazy, and want to know what I am doing when Olivia goes to school.

This is why I think shows like Confessions of A Soccer Mom are really nefarious. They imply that even if you have chosen to stay at home and the PC world is required to not openly condemn your choice, that it is a choice that should have a very limited shelf life. You should automatically want to go back to work the minute your child turns five so that you can return to more "complete" self. When I first saw interviews with the host Tracey Gold a few weeks ago I thought that the show was a great concept. Help moms who want to return to the workforce with job training, housework and some other things to ease the transition. It is hard for a lot of moms to admit that they want to go back to work, and this show does validate that choice. What they don't do is give the poor woman an accurate picture of what it is like to balance work and family. They sequester her for a week and send in maids to her home so she can find out a week from now that a really long day at work isn't over the minute she comes home like it used to be.

The most interesting part of the Newsweek article was where it talks about how most women surveyed just wanted to work part-time. I have also seen more than one survey of men who say that they would give up a significant fraction of their salary to have more time off. Where is the disconnect? No universal health care? Americans truly can't live without their possessions?