<p>I mean the fact that North Korea has more than quadrupled its number of nuclear arms since Bush ascended the presidency is just a tad alarming.</p>
<p><outofcharacter>
foshizzle. yo.
</outofcharacter></p>
<p>Though the NKorea thing probably isn't directly Bush's fault.</p>
<p>I suspect it is not just the stay at home vs. work value issue. I personally resent the implication that the woman should be the one to stay home. I would be much more open to the discussion of the relative importance of working and caring for children if it applied equally to both sexes. An increasing number of women earn more than their husbands, so it isn't simply an economic consideration as it once may have been to a certain extent.</p>
<p>I would want a degree, at least, and a part-time job doing something for pure enjoyment, which may or may not be related to my degree. I would want to know that, if I was in a situation where I wanted a divorce, I wouldn't feel locked into the marriage for financial reasons. I would want the sense of security that comes with knowing that I COULD be financially independent if I had to be.
A good number (around 5or 6) of my friends' mothers are stay-at-home mothers who don't work at all. I'll admit that I'm kind of jealous of their lifestyles- now that their kids are older and don't require attention 24-7, they pretty much spend their days playing tennis, sitting around and chatting with friends, throwing dinner parties, etc. However, a few years ago, one of these women was on the brink of divorcing her husband. Upon realizing that she would need to find a job, she started drawing up a resume. She realized that, without a college education, she would never be able to keep living the life she had become accustomed to. She's still (unhappily) married, to this day...what a nightmare! I would never want to be in that situation.</p>
<p>Hmm...being a doctor still seems more fun and forfilling than throwing dinner parties and playing tennis all day.</p>
<p>Being a doctor is not easy, nor is it "fun", nor are you happy. You are gutted like a fish very early on and you lose all sense of emotion if you have a tough medical specialty. Job satisfaction in general plummets like crazy for doctors after they first years. You can almost compare it to a bad marriage, or you can continue living in a dream world were medicine is fun, easy and you save lifes. None of which you actually do (except trauma surgeons). No speciality saves lives except trauma surgeons, the rest TREAT disease, attempt to EASE pain, and attempt to ASSIST the body to get BETTER. There is no curing involved, heck in CT surgery there is no more open heart involved for the most part. But if some people think medicine is easy and rewarding come back here when you are a doctor, and then you can admit its not at all that its cracked up to be.</p>
<p>My mom was in the work force for 15 years after college--with a 3 year break after my younger sibling was born. She hated staying at home--it was boring and she didn't like the attitudes of other stay-at-home moms. She went back to a high-paying job, and actually my dad stayed home for a year. Recently she quit her job because we moved and she had to settle for a worse job. Now she's unemployed and looking for work--and she is always in such terrible moods! Staying at home is BORING and she's not making 100k anymore--so I don't blame her for perpetual *****iness.</p>
<p>I don't mean that being a doctor's going to be fun. It's just better than being a stay at home mom.</p>
<p>And Mallomar, my mom was almost in the same situation. She wasn't making nearly as much money as yours, but she's currently holding a part time job and an instructor, and she likes it a lot more than not working period.</p>