Is the 1950's ideal of Dad working and Mom staying at home a myth?

Question

It seems that would be impossible in our generation unless you are a Doctor or Lawyer.

Answer 1

Sweet Pea it's not a myth, its just depend on the income level of the home. If the hubbie is needing help with the finances we are women are suppose to step up. We are help meets to our husbands so we must do what ever it takes to make the home life as comfortable as possible. Good luck and God bless!

Answer 2

Yes its a myth.

Don't you suppose that the division of labor kept women at home for a reason.
That reason plain and simple was WORK. House keeping was a lot more work once than it is now. There were no great floor care and clening products. The vacum cleaner was rare.
There were few televisions, there was one car per family, there were no day care centers, there were few jobs for women that paid enough to pay for a cleaning person or a sitter. How about permanent press clothing? Clothes were cotton or wool, line dried and IRONED. No one in our neighborhood had a first floor laundry. Showers existed in the schools. The homes had bathtubs which take more time.
How about buying groceries. Ther were no big supermarkets. Prepared food was not available. For moms in the 50's staying at home was not an option it was necessity. Homemaking was hard work and time consuming.

When you hear someone talking about the "great stay at home moms of the 50s" you had better remember it was not for the nicey nicey mom who bonds with their lovely children. It was because the world then had few of our modern convieniences and women had an all day job to keep the household running.
Remember that the first hand held calculator did not hit the market until 1968. It cost a months pay to get a machine that did not do square roots. How about juggling scant funds due to one wage earner and having to keep all of your books without a calculator.

Memory is selective. The people who talk about the 50's glory also bask in their own glory of the woman as servant and not of wife.
It would be those same people who mock feminists for demanding an equal share of societys benefits.

My memory of the glorious 50's was a father who worked 10 hour days at hard labor coming home to a family meal and collapsing from fatigue. Mom was not far behind once the meal was done.cleaned up and lunches were prepared for the next day.
It wasn't all that much fun.

This is the ideal of the 50's stay at home mom. In today's world the time required to maintain the household is greatly reduced. It was nice that my wife was able to stay at home for our sons early years but it was just that a nice benefit of being in that decade.. Once they were both in school that need went away. The extra cash that her working brought greatly outweighed any benefit from the SAHM.

It makes me a bit crazy when I hear about the great sacrifice
couples make to have mom at home. Today, having mom at home is A Privalege. The "ideal" of the 50's was mother as pack mule.

Answer 3

In most parts of the country unless the man has a lucrative enough job the fifties concept is a myth. Actually, even in the fifties it was a myth. While there were still some stay at home moms, many women had already joined the workforce in low paying jobs. Most of these women started working during World War II.

The latch key kid syndrome had already begun. It just kept increasing until now there appear to be far fewer stay at home mothers than working mothers.

Either way, the nuclear family is a failure. The concept might work if both parents put in equal effort and support for the children, but that happens in far too few families. Most families are entirely dysfunctional and the children suffer for it. This is just as true for stay at home mom families as for working couples with children.

In fact, Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond was upset to find out just how many people related to his comedy show about a dysfunctional family. He discovered that most of the audience watched because it reminded them of their own families.

Take care,
Troy

Answer 4

It's not so much a myth, but a highly unlikely chance. Dad would have to be making at least 70K in order for them to be comfortable.....I wish my husband made enough money....all I ahve ever wanted was to be a stay at home mom; but that will now only happen if I get the ball rolling on something I am doing where I can make enough income to supliment a real job; then I can stay home all day and do a few appoinements a night and still return home in time to spend time with him.

Answer 5

I love that you say it's impossible. Hmmm my husband is not a doctor or a lawyer. In fact he has a boring blue collar job. We have 5 kids and I stay at home full time to take care of them and the house. We own our house and do ok for ourselves. The secret is this: we live within our means. We don't charge things up on credit cards, we stick to a budget and we live without things that other people think they have to have. Like cable for example. My husband and I believe that taking good care of our children and being very involved in their lives is way more important then having cool stuff. I guess we're doing the impossible

Answer 6

It's definitely still possible. I stay home and my husband isn't a doctor or a lawyer ( he made 41,000.00 last year). A lot of it has to do with priorities, and where you want to spend your money. We don't make gobs of money, but we manage fine.
I know it's not always possible, but it's probably more possible that most people realize. I know women that say home and their husbands are machinists, floor installers, mechanics, police officers, cabinet makers, and retail clerks.

A lot probably depends on where you live too. The cost of living here is pretty low. We just bought a 1500 sq ft house in a nice neighborhood with a nice size lot, fenced in back yard, and good schools for $72,000.00. When we lived in Maryland you couldn't get anything like what we have for under $250,000.00, hell, even town houses were going for that. Single family homes have gotten outrageous there.

Answer 7

It's not impossible. If you don't live outside your means, it can work. But not everybody is fortunate enough to get a job that pays well. So many people think they must earn at least $100k in order to survive. But it's true, there aren't many jobs out there that pay well enough for one of you to stay home. I am a stay at home mom, have been for 13 years now. My husband works as a trainman for the railroad. Eventually I will go to work, but only because I need to get out of the house. My income will never be considered during financing. We base all our purchases off his income.

Answer 8

Not impossible, but a lot harder these days.

Clippings coupons, turning the thermostat up, no fancy I phones, dinner out just once a week, are a few of the things that my wife and I do to allow her to stay at home with the kids for now.

Answer 9

My daughter and son-in-law have six children and my daughter is a stay-at-home mom. They are licensed foster parents so they have two or three extra kids at any given time. They also have custody of my son-in-law's special needs adult brother. They do just fine with his supervisory trucking job and her income from the foster kids. Every family should be so happy!

Answer 10

Only if you want a lot of nice things. My sister-in-law stayed home for a long time on just my brother's salary. They didn't have much and had to scrimp and save all the time. In the 50's this worked because employers expected it to work and paid employees appropriately. Also, parents knew they would have to scrimp to make it work.