S/O from SAHM lifestyle thread

[AuntieM]

I selected other. While I do have certain skills, my expertise lies in a narrow area specific to nonprofit organizations. Job openings in my field are not widespread, and typically are not high-paying. And after many years out of the work force, I feel a bit out of the loop.

 

That said, I am a quick study, and would be a good employee in a number of situations. I just would feel more confident if my experience or credentials were in an area that always had a high demand and paid well enough to really support a family (ie, nursing, a teaching degree, accountant).

[Lovedtodeath]

I voted yes. I have done every office job imaginable and was making a good wage when I quit before having DD. So... I have made twice minimum wage in the past. Can I do it again? IDK

[Nestof3]

I haven't given it much thought, really. I think I do. I have a degree, and I have what I consider marketable skills, but who knows.

 

I do have a large life insurance policy in case of death. We are also out of debt including our mortgage. My husband could sell his business. My parents live down the street. His parents are still alive (though in upper 80's) and have quite a bit of assets including stocks, CDs, etc. So, I do feel like I have some support to fall on if something freakish were to happen.

 

My husband adores me, and tells me often he could not live without me, so I have no fears of divorce either.

[LibraryLover]

I voted yes. I have done every office job imaginable and was making a good wage when I quit before having DD. So... I have made twice minimum wage in the past. Can I do it again? IDK

 

 

You're a good and hardworking person and I want you to stop worrying right now. I don't like this thread and I think the mods should remove it. Only some of it is thoughtful, imo.

 

I disagree that we should be living our mothering lives in fear that our dh's are going to turn turn into Darth Vader before he was saved by Luke. (That's to make you smile). Most men are decent men who will care for their children and who love their wives, even when the going gets tough. I know many more decent men than I know cruel ones, even if divorce is involved. We have that, at least. Is this fact covered in the Freakonomics books?

[ElizabethB]

Do you have a marketable skill?

If something happened to your husband or your marriage ended, would you be able to work to support your family at anything more than a low/minimum wage job?

I wouldn't, and it's something that bothers me but I feel powerless to change it.

 

Where's the I disagree sign? (And I mean I disagree in the nicest way!) If you taught your kids, you can parlay that into a marketable tutoring job. I'm especially sure that in your case you could make it work given the articulate nature of your posts and the material you are currently teaching your children.

 

There are literacy problems in the U.S, Australia, Canada, and the U.K. due to whole language and balanced literacy teaching. You don't need a degree or a certificate to remediate people. Some people demand degrees or certificates, but most go by word of mouth.

 

While I have the luxury of being able to tutor as a volunteer, my students would pay a lot of money for the results they get, and I have idiot proof instructions on my how to tutor page about how to do it and a post about how to tutor for pay and how to find students. People also pay a lot of money for math tutoring if that's your love. And, with all the fuzzy math currently being taught, there is no shortage of remedial math students, either. (That's here in the U.S. I haven't kept up with the shape of math education in Australia...although I guess that would be maths in your vernacular?)

Edited January 20, 2010 by ElizabethB

[asta]

I don't have a degree, but I feel I have enough skills to get an adequate job. Ultimately, I'd like to get our income up to a decent level so we can purchase enough life insurance so that neither of us would need to worry. For me, it would be enough to cover loss income while DH shifts his business focus (right now some of his work can be done remotely but not all of it). For DH, the minimum would be enough to cover all of our income until all of the kids were old enough for me to return to work without putting them into school.

 

When we didn't have 2 dimes to rub together, we bought life insurance on the two of us (the kind that allows you to buy more w/o a health exam). I had my first and only baby and got sick. And sicker and sicker. Now I have epilepsy and an endocrine disorder and am uninsurable. If I had waited until we could "afford" insurance, I would have none.

 

I have marketable skills. I have worked, in some capacity or another, since I was eleven. I generalize in almost everything, and specialize in a couple of areas. I could not approach DHs salary, but that is ok. I could feed and clothe us. I know how to be poor, not so poor, middle class, and upper middle class - there is no "lock on happiness" at any one of them. :001_smile: I also tend to be a hard person - I will do absolutely anything to provide for my child prior to taking charity. It is the way I was raised. I am not passing judgement on what others would do, it is just how *I* was raised.

 

Divorce. I was raised to be entirely self sufficient. Becoming a SAHM was a complete, utter paradigm shift. Heck, even believing that my husband really meant it when he said marriage was permanent in his eyes was/is a hard pill to swallow. That was not the experience I grew up with, and it is not the experience I continue to see.

 

I have a girlfriend who has been married for 16 years. Storybook romance. She became ill apprx 8 years ago and the docs kept telling her she was just "crazy". Her husband stood by her, was her rock. She finally got to Johns Hopkins where they said "no, you're not crazy, you have X, Y, Z - no wonder you're so sick". She got better. He left her for a married woman because "It has been too stressful being married to someone who is sick all of the time". She worked for the government in a lucrative job before becoming a SAHM. Well - now she has been out of it for years, and isn't in an area with much federal employment. No one is hiring. She is stuck. The pope himself can't help her.

 

I have another girlfriend who got cancer. Same storybook romance. We all adored the husband. They owned their own business, no insurance. They took out a second mortgage to pay for her treatment. When she got better, he left her for a woman he met on the internet who "understood what he'd been going through". He sold the business for a dollar so she couldn't get anything out of it. She lost the house because of the 2 mortgages. He works "under the table" so she can't get alimony, yet has a brand new mcmansion. Alimony is not assured nor automatic.

 

Love and behavior are two different things. If marriage was only about love, we would have a very low divorce rate. I have no doubt that the two guys above loved their wives. But at some point, they got it in their heads that they didn't "deserve" to have to deal with whatever was going on, and their behavior shifted. This happens with women, also. To ignore this reality is absurd: people grow, people change. Is all of the growth or change bad? Of course not. But if it is, both parties need to be mentally and financially prepared, even if it is only in the abstract.

 

 

asta

[Melissa in Australia]

Do you have a marketable skill?

If something happened to your husband or your marriage ended, would you be able to work to support your family at anything more than a low/minimum wage job?

I wouldn't, and it's something that bothers me but I feel powerless to change it.

 

not really sure what your definition of a low/ minimum wage is.

I am qualified Personal carer, and could get work in any nursing home/ aged care etc.

I Have just started a degree at open university to become a primary school teacher.

[keptwoman]

Melissa, minimum wage to me is waiting tables, or supermarket cashier, McD's etc.

[GaHadley]

You're a good and hardworking person and I want you to stop worrying right now. I don't like this thread and I think the mods should remove it. Only some of it is thoughtful, imo.

 

I disagree that we should be living our mothering lives in fear that our dh's are going to turn turn into Darth Vader before he was saved by Luke. (That's to make you smile). Most men are decent men who will care for their children and who love their wives, even when the going gets tough. I know many more decent men than I know cruel ones, even if divorce is involved. We have that, at least. Is this fact covered in the Freakonomics books?

 

amen! It is sad to me the people who feel that they need to be prepared for divorce, to fend for themselves. Yes, we need to be prepared for things that are out of our control - death, unemployment, etc. - but, and this is just MY opinion, being prepared for divorce is like inviting it to happen. My parents are divorced. Each of them twice now. I know it can happen. Seemingly good marriages end. My dh is committed to me and our family. He wants to see them homeschooled as much (some days more :tongue_smilie:) as I do. I do not feel helpless at all in my situation. I actually feel very blessed to be "just" a stay at home, homeschool mom.

[Closeacademy]

My dh sells life insurance and he is insured at enough that if we live frugally, I shouldn't have to work.

 

Now, if I need to work, I can make a decent living as a paralegal. Since our debts should be paid due to life insurance the low salary should be OK.:001_smile:

[Firefly]

Of course I have "marketable" skills and I challenge anyone to say they have none. I can wash dishes. I can clean houses. I can pull weeds. I can buy or collect 2nd hand things and sell them online. I could work in a shop.

They mightn't be my ideal but my 21year old steppdd is getting $30 an hour to clean houses. Its a good, independent job. Could be flexible around homeschooling.

 

I also have a diploma as a naturopath but I think that would be next to useless in any kind of crisis need to make money- although I could use the massage diploma part of it to make some. It takes years to build a client base. And they are pumping out hundreds of natuopaths from several colleges in my city, yearly, and it's not a big city.

 

One needs some creativity and imagination and some willingness to think out of the box, and one can make some money. Maybe not doing their ideal job, maybe not enough to support their family straight off. But something. No one has no marketable skills, particularly homeschooling mothers! We are made of tough stuff!

 

:iagree: Great post.

[OhM]

Yes. I have gumption, a positive attitude, resourcefulness, people skills, organizational skills, and the ability to learn quickly. Do I have a degree? No. But, if I had to, I have no doubt I could support our family.

 

You know, this seems more important than a degree when it comes to supporting your family. You definitely have the skills!

 

I do have a "fall-back" carreer - engineering degree that I'm fortunate to keep current through part-time work.

 

My mom supported our family when she and dad divorced for a time during the 70's. She's an extremely intelligent woman who managed to give my brother and me all we needed (if not all we wanted) with secretarial skills she picked up in high school. When computers started to come into business, she learned keypunch and some rudimentary programming, but still never earned more than a support salary. She definitely would have earned more if she had earned the college degree instead of working to put dad through school, but they never planned for the family to fall apart.

 

Anyway - too late for long story short - she raised her daughter to "take care of herself". I've had to learn what little skills I do possess in homemaking and child-raising on my own because I wasn't raised to do this (SAHM stuff!) Taking care of myself and my kids financially is not my problem. The emotional and physical aspects of taking care of my family day-to-day are the bigger challenge.

 

It's a balance - and as we all know, there's great skill and worth in homemaking and raising a family. And a lot of that skill can be very marketable!

[Kim in Appalachia]

Of course I have "marketable" skills and I challenge anyone to say they have none. I can wash dishes. I can clean houses. I can pull weeds. I can buy or collect 2nd hand things and sell them online. I could work in a shop.

They mightn't be my ideal but my 21year old steppdd is getting $30 an hour to clean houses. Its a good, independent job. Could be flexible around homeschooling.

 

I also have a diploma as a naturopath but I think that would be next to useless in any kind of crisis need to make money- although I could use the massage diploma part of it to make some. It takes years to build a client base. And they are pumping out hundreds of natuopaths from several colleges in my city, yearly, and it's not a big city.

 

One needs some creativity and imagination and some willingness to think out of the box, and one can make some money. Maybe not doing their ideal job, maybe not enough to support their family straight off. But something. No one has no marketable skills, particularly homeschooling mothers! We are made of tough stuff!

 

 

You are right. If I did go for an interview anywhere I can say that I am self motivated, self disiplined, organized and able to think outside the box. They all sound like good skills.

 

And yes, you can make good money cleaning houses and/or offices. It is flexible work and you can almost set your own hours.

[Night Elf]

I know of many, many people who do not believe in divorce who ended up divorced

 

True, but even after going through one divorce, I have no desire to plan for a similar event in my marriage. Personally, I believe it would undermine our trusting relationship, an essential element of our marriage.

 

My exhusband and I had absolutely nothing to split. I didn't even ask for alimony, and expected only the necessary child support that included daycare costs and medical insurance. It was the custody issue that came back to kick me in the rear end. Trusting him during the marriage was a good idea. Trusting him during and after our divorce was a bad idea.

 

I did have one friend who berated me for not planning for a possible divorce. But she believes men are just men and nothing special. She says if marriage works, it works. If it doesn't work, it's no big deal. She also believes that divorce has been popularized because marriage simply isn't as serious as some believe. I disagree with her.

[Harriet Vane]

Right away I could proofread or I could do sewing and alterations.

 

With just a little work I could edit. Since I've been out of the business so long I would have to brush up on current trends and "prove" myself through proofreading or administrative assistant work.

 

A one-year program would get me a master's in education and teach, which is what I would love if I had to generate income.

[AuntieM]

Of course I have "marketable" skills and I challenge anyone to say they have none. I can wash dishes. I can clean houses. I can pull weeds. I can buy or collect 2nd hand things and sell them online. I could work in a shop.

They mightn't be my ideal but my 21year old steppdd is getting $30 an hour to clean houses. Its a good, independent job. Could be flexible around homeschooling.

 

I also have a diploma as a naturopath but I think that would be next to useless in any kind of crisis need to make money- although I could use the massage diploma part of it to make some. It takes years to build a client base. And they are pumping out hundreds of natuopaths from several colleges in my city, yearly, and it's not a big city.

 

One needs some creativity and imagination and some willingness to think out of the box, and one can make some money. Maybe not doing their ideal job, maybe not enough to support their family straight off. But something. No one has no marketable skills, particularly homeschooling mothers! We are made of tough stuff!

 

I totally agree with you, especially on this point! I've always said, put a team of home school moms on The Apprentice, and they'd dust it up! If our kids need feeding, there's little that could stop us.

 

I agree also that you don't *need* a degree to be considered "marketable."

 

I do think, though, that there is something to being "credentialed" that helps get a foot in the door. That and professional/personal contacts (the old, it's not what you know, but who...). I think my own lack of recent experience in my field and not having built contacts after relocating to my current area are the main things leading me to feel less marketable at this time.

 

The multiple streams of income approach...interesting, another thing that is doable and probably great for some. However, I am not all that into multitasking, I can give my best effort to a task (ie, employer) when I am not distracted by lots of other jobs to keep track of. I could do it if need be, but it wouldn't be my preference.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

True, but even after going through one divorce, I have no desire to plan for a similar event in my marriage. Personally, I believe it would undermine our trusting relationship, an essential element of our marriage.

 

My exhusband and I had absolutely nothing to split. I didn't even ask for alimony, and expected only the necessary child support that included daycare costs and medical insurance. It was the custody issue that came back to kick me in the rear end. Trusting him during the marriage was a good idea. Trusting him during and after our divorce was a bad idea.

 

I did have one friend who berated me for not planning for a possible divorce. But she believes men are just men and nothing special. She says if marriage works, it works. If it doesn't work, it's no big deal. She also believes that divorce has been popularized because marriage simply isn't as serious as some believe. I disagree with her.

 

I agree with not planning for it in a sense. I do not plan for it at all, but I also had a marketable skill long before I met my husband. I had one friend whose now ex-husband insisted on on pre-nuptial agreement which in my opinion is bad news and it it turns it that it was:(. My husband both firmly believe in fidelity and marriage, but still things could happen. I don't really think about it per se though and would be totally shocked if it ever happened since I married a saint;)

 

I just think that there are so many factors besides divorce such as death and illness that make it wise to have back up plans which incidentally help in the case of divorce as well. Plus the reality is that up to half of marriages end up in divorce. I also think that many of those who ended up that way believed in their marriages and such:(

[Julie in CA]

I started baking as a hobby, then I learned to decorate cakes for fun, then it grew into friends asking me to make decorated cakes for them, then it grew to strangers calling me with orders. That grew into doing wedding/anniversary cakes. Then I started making specialty desserts for a local restaurant, and that resulted in even more calls for wedding cakes and special desserts. I am having trouble containing the baking to part-time at this point, but I seriously cannot handle any more than what I'm doing. If I needed to, I'm very sure I could allow that to blossom into full-time very easily, since I'm having trouble holding it back right now.

 

I'm pretty sure I could support myself and my dc. I don't think I could support myself, my dc, *and* dh. As my dc get older, and more self-supporting, it's become less of a worry for me.

[keptwoman]

Actually this thread has cheered me no end, it's interesting to see the kinds of things that people have talked about earning money from. I've been thinking about it all in far too narrow a way :)

[Jill- OK]

Do you have a marketable skill?

If something happened to your husband or your marriage ended, would you be able to work to support your family at anything more than a low/minimum wage job?

 

I write for pay, and would increase my client base if I needed to pull in more money.

 

We do have insurance situated so that I wouldn't have to match dh's salary, should something happen to him.

[profmom]

Thank you for springing off of me... I feel special :lol: That being said I see the two treated as the same so often now that it has started to bother me.

 

Degrees are fine and wonderful, but it is possible to be a well-rounded, well payed individual without one. There are tons of m/s out there that have nothing to do with a degree.

 

You're right, of course. Speaking as someone who listed my degree & certification as my "marketable skill," I don't mean to imply that a person must have a degree to have a marketable skill. I'm just not as creative as others and would have to fall back on this for my income. (The truth is that I'm not very interested in my old profession and would either have to work in it anyway or figure out something else -- who knows what.)

[farmmom4him]

Divorce is not in our vocab....

 

So, if something happened to dh, I would continue the farm we have. I would however, change, as I would get rid of the share and custom. I would only take care of our own ground. I would raise cattle too. I would hire our ground to be farmed in the way, that I know it could be utilized best, not allowing another farmer to take over. I would be able to make it with his life ins and selling of the equipment we own.

 

I also have skills that would help out too, and keep me home. Sewing bookkeeping, and I am getting into web design.

 

If something happened to me, well, it just better not. lol No, dh is fully capable of taking on the job and I imagine help would surround him. That is the community we live in.

[SquirrellyMama]

I voted no. I have a BS and a BA but I feel like I still have no marketable skill. I suppose that is what a Marketing degree will do for you. My BA is in Spanish but I haven't used it in 11 years.

[farmgirlinwv]

I work PT as a nurse, but dh makes a lot more. I could work FT if needed. We do have a pretty good life insurance policy though. If dh lost his job it would be tough, but we could make it.

[MelanieM]

I do think, though, that there is something to being "credentialed" that helps get a foot in the door. That and professional/personal contacts (the old, it's not what you know, but who...).

 

Based on my own past experiences as a hiring manager, I would say that the only time a degree ever made a difference was when I was considering hiring a person with absolutely zero experience, i.e. a young student. Once there's work experience, the eductation becomes irrelevant. Of course, this doesn't apply to all professions where education is necessary to experience, i.e. doctors or lawyers, and people do vary in how they weight education.

 

The multiple streams of income approach...interesting, another thing that is doable and probably great for some. However, I am not all that into multitasking, I can give my best effort to a task (ie, employer) when I am not distracted by lots of other jobs to keep track of. I could do it if need be, but it wouldn't be my preference.

 

For me, the multiple streams of income approach helps to keep boredom/overwhelm at bay, increase interest level, and offer a bit of a security blanket. For example, I could watch kids after school a couple of days a week but have zero interest in providing full time childcare; I love to offer Reiki and am happy with a half dozen distance sessions a month, but really wouldn't want to do that many a day, every day; I enjoy writing for perhaps 10 hours a week, but would feel overwhelmed trying to do it for 10 hours a day, etc. But with many opportunities available to me, if I did need to increase income I could pick and choose which avenue to invest more time in, and a loss of one stream wouldn't be as big a deal as if it were the only stream.

 

It actually feels like a natural extension of what I do as a mother -- juggle plates. lol!

[lionfamily1999]

Actually this thread has cheered me no end, it's interesting to see the kinds of things that people have talked about earning money from. I've been thinking about it all in far too narrow a way :)

:iagree:

You're right, of course. Speaking as someone who listed my degree & certification as my "marketable skill," I don't mean to imply that a person must have a degree to have a marketable skill. I'm just not as creative as others and would have to fall back on this for my income. (The truth is that I'm not very interested in my old profession and would either have to work in it anyway or figure out something else -- who knows what.)

It was not so much this post as a culmination of various threads, conversations, articles, etc. No worries (and I'm sorry I blew my stacks :blushing: )! Even I have to remind myself that college is not a necessity ;)

[Catherine]

I do it partly because I love what I do and partly because I need to maintain my skills, and also because I see my career as an important part of who I am. Even though it is really hard to keep up both, it's more important to me than sleep and free time : )

 

IMO all young women should have a decent career. Parents should strongly encourage this and girls should pursue it. Women without an "out" are vulnerable.

[iteachmine]

I do it partly because I love what I do and partly because I need to maintain my skills, and also because I see my career as an important part of who I am. Even though it is really hard to keep up both, it's more important to me than sleep and free time : )

 

IMO all young women should have a decent career. Parents should strongly encourage this and girls should pursue it. Women without an "out" are vulnerable.

 

 

:iagree:

[dirty ethel rackham]

Well, I voted "other." I used to have a marketable career as I was a computer analyst for 10 years before staying home with my 2nd son. I have been out of that job market for over 13 years and a lot has changed. Plus, most of the jobs I would have been qualified for have moved to India - cheap, educated labor. Also, after being out of the market so long and due to my health problems, full-time work would be very difficult for me.

 

I have a business that I could put a lot more effort into and make enough to get by working part-time. This is something we have been working on because of a situation with dh's job. While his job is secure for now, some legislation that is being considered because of the Blago-corruption could seriously hinder dh's ability to find work should he leave his current job (either by his choice or theirs.) Basically, since he works for a government entity and often has to make recommendations on who to select to receive contracts (he doesn't make the final decision, just recommends) he can't work for anyone who does business with the state for 1 year. Well, the fact that he is in a specialized industry that depends on government money, that basically makes him completely unemployable for a year unless he were to find a rarely available similar position in another state.

[Mrs Mungo]

I voted yes, but I would have a hard time supporting our family...it would take a while to get to that point.

 

I feel the same. I know I could get a decent job but it would not pay the sort of money or offer the sort of benefits that my dh's job does. Yes, we have extremely good insurance but how long is that intended to last?

[IsabelC]

I could get a job, but not an enjoyable or well paid one. I would live on the insurance payout until kids are older.

[mommylawyer]

I'm an attorney and still work part-time, so, yes, I believe I could support my family, possibly even on a part-time basis if something were to happen to DH's job.

[Momma2Many66]

I do not have any marketable skills, except childcare, I have been raising children for the last 26 years of my life. I had my first when I was 18 years old and have had 5 more children since that time. I am now 44.

 

But, I do have in my favor two strong hands, a very hard work ethic and a "never say die" attitude that reminds me daily that I am not above doing ANY job I need to do to feed my family.

 

When I was divorced from my first husband and had to support two young children all on my own, I did all kinds of work to make a living. I worked in a slaughter house, I worked in a pretzel factory, I cleaned houses ( I scrubbed lots of other people's floors, windows and toilets), I nannied, I worked at a grocery store, I worked in a mail processing plant, I waitressed, I worked at Walmart and I worked in a nursing home. I also worked any shift available and adjusted my life to accomodate the job. Many times I did two or three jobs at a time. I know if hard times hit us again, I would make it, because I will sincerly take any job available to support my family.

 

But because of my first marraige ending and dealing with a major health crisis of cancer in one of my children, I learned to always live carefully and be prepared for anything, just in case. So now, we live a very simple lifestyle.

 

My husband and I work very hard to keep to a strict budget, incur no debt, use no credit cards, shop thrift stores, yard sales and GoodWills, our vacations are camp out's in the backyard (FREE), we have a HUGE garden and orchard every year to grow much of our own foods, were working on paying off the rest of what's left of our small mortgage on our farm, we never buy anything without cash, we buy used cars with cash only that we budget in advance for, we keep our grocery budget to no more then $125 a week (including paper goods) for 3 adults and 4 children (we eat lots and lots of beans & rice and sometimes on special occasions we have rice & beans ):001_smile:

 

I also socked away a nice 6 month plus emergency fund, so if hard times hit, we can deal with it until we can find work again. Every pay check, we put alot of it away for those "just in case times".

 

 

We also have so much fun coming up with ideas on how to do "this or that" cheaper or make something run longer, work harder or stretch to another day. We are huge on conserving and recycling everything we use. We make a game out of living simply and we have so much fun doing it. We learned most of all to be grateful and appreciate what we do have instead of what we don't. We are so very blessed !

 

Because we live simply, because we don't require much to survive on, I can do it again if I had to on minimum wage. It is not my ideal, It certainly wouldn't be something I look forward to doing, but it is nice to know that If things got really bad again, I could make it on just a simple minimum wage job.

 

And sometimes, in bad economies, those are the only jobs really available in hard times. And typically, those are the very jobs that most people can't afford to accept, because they couldn't eat and pay their bills on minimum wage jobs. They raised their standard of living to a much, much, higher working wage. We keeps our standard of living at the bare bottom. But, we also have something that money cannot buy, we have peace of mind. We know that we can survive if the %^#%^& hits the fan again !

 

So I figure, if things got really rough for us, I could afford to live pretty simply again on a minimum wage job. Been there, done that and I have the t-shirt to prove it ! :lol:

 

I edited to also say:

 

My children are all being raised to either get a college education in a field that will keep them highly competive in terms of job situations or they must attend a technical school to earn a degree in some type of skilled labor that will allow them to make a sizeable income after graduation. Such as plumbing, electrician, military, ect...

 

They also must take a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace course as young adults to get them started on learning to live on less, conserve more, and save and plan for a rainy day whether that be unemployment, illness or emergency situations. I want them to really think and plan out their future's, not just career wise, but so that they have financial independence. I want them to approach life with an " I can" attitude instead of an " I can't". So I am giving them these skills before they leave our home and set out to conquer they world on their own.

 

They are also being encouraged to postpone marraige or having children until they have graduated from college or technical school and can support a family well.

 

I don't want them to have to struggle all their life with low paying jobs. I want so much more for my children. However, I am also teaching them the importance of living simply, well below your means, to conserve and use what you have in your hand, so that they can always be prepared for "just in case's" and always learn that the main focus is not on having more, but appreciating more. Gratitude in any situation is so very important ! It is what keeps us from feeling depressed or downtrodded on when tough times hit (and they will hit, they always do).

 

As Thomas Jefferson said "Man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can do without".

Edited January 22, 2010 by Momma2Many66

[katemary63]

I don't have a degree and have almost no working experience. Of course as a teenager I worked at minimum wage jobs in retail and fast food. As an adult I have only worked for a total of 18 months. 12 months at a Sears store and 6 months at a home improvement store. Both times, as a cashier. So, No, I have no marketable skills.

 

I am not at all happy about this and feel that it has not been wise for me to end up in this situation. Fortunately, we have enough capital and insurance that if my DH should die, I would have the money to live off of while finishing my degree. ( I have 56 credits w/ all my gen. ed. completed including calculus.) So, I am not terribly worried, but, not happy about the situation either.

 

The one thing I did do is tell all my kids, especially daughters, "You do NOT get married before finishing college. If you do, that's fine, but I will not be paying for your wedding. Not one penny." Maybe that's an over reaction, but I don't want them ending up like me with no way to support themselves. As much as I have loved being a SAHM for 25 years, I think I should have at least finished my degree. Right now, with the farm and homeschooling the youngest, I can't. But maybe someday?