What is the value of being a homemaker?
When you have a job it's easy to know how much you are worth.
Work an hourly desk job: You are worth $8 an hour.
Work flipping burgers at Burger King: You are worth $6 an hour.
Work as a full time 2nd grade teacher: You are worth $49,000 per year
Work as a pharmacist: You are worth $120,000 per year
Work as a homemaker: You are worth $0 per hour per year.
When you get your paycheck, you bring it home and use it to contribute to the comfort and happiness of your family. You splurge on a birthday present for your husband or buy extra treats for your children. You are careful about how you spend money on yourself, but you try to make sure your clothes are replenished at least once a year. Not so as a housewife. You use your husband's money to buy him a birthday present. How do you splurge on him using his money? You hesitate to buy extra treats for the kids and figure you can buy new clothes next time they are on sale, because this isn't your money and you should use it carefully. New clothes aren't an emergency yet.
When you have a job it's easy to know whether or not you are effective by bonuses, promotions, customer response or even just being given more work. As a housewife there are no bonuses unless finally getting the three year old potty trained so you can save that money on diapers counts. There are no promotions unless getting pregnant again counts. The customer response is very confusing at best. And the fact that I'm consistently given more work seems like failure to me rather than success.
My husband is WONDERFUL in every way. It was my decision to quit my job and be a full time homemaker when I had my first child. He has supported me 100% in that decision. In his eyes, his paycheck is mine. In my eyes it is his. He encourages me to buy new clothes and pretty things, but in my opinion, those are not needed or emergencies so they must wait for those things that are. When I do buy something that is not "needed" he never says or feels anything negative about it. I, however, feel guilty every time I look at it.
All these things would not be an issue for me if I found success and satisfaction in what I do. But I'm home all day and my house is still ALWAYS dirty. I have been a housewife for seven years and I still burn and cry over my pathetic homemade dinners. I HATE Pinterest. I feel like as a homemaker, I should be crafty and Pinterest enforces that belief. I don't like doing crafts. I don't even have picture albums of my kids. If I'm not spending all my time on the house then I should be spending it on my kids. But all they will have is mental pictures of their past because I never bring the camera (my phone is usually not charged) and hate the tedious work of organizing them if by some miracle I do take them. Now when I look back at the picture I often don't know who's who and don't even try to guess how old they were at the time. I've always thought of myself as a teacher but my children, who are Taiwanese/American and living in Taiwan, DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH! I've never taught them.
So what am I doing exactly and does it have any value?
