SAH Mom Movement

The SAH (stay - at - home) parent vs working parent debate is a hot topic.  Everywhere you look there is some discussion about the merits of both lifestyle choices.  I belong to a large online community of mothers, many of which are SAH mothers and as a result of one of them posting the following link, I was presented with this news article.

http://6abc.com/family/stay-at-home-mom-wins-praise-from-blogger-husband/637468/

From this news story I searched the internet to find the blog post in question:
http://www.weareglory.com/blog/fathers-you-cant-afford-a-stay-at-home-mom

While I think it is awesome that there is a movement for husbands to appreciate their wives (and vice versa) I feel as though the SAH mom culture and mindset is somewhat offensive to us working mothers.

The author of this blog post writes the argument that the monetary value his SAH wife/mom brings to the family is around $70K.  He comments that aside from "nanny" duties for their child his wife performs the following additional jobs:

• house cleaning
• personal shopper
• chef
• financial assistant
• laundry service

I challenge the author with the question, who do you think completes these additional jobs in a household with two working parents?  The working parent must complete these tasks in addition to their corporate jobs often with a lot less free time.  I would argue that while the working parent may not hold the "nanny" role throughout the work week, the working parent must also act as the manager of their child's care while they are working.  Just as managers are important in the corporate setting, managing your child's care is just as important as physically watching your child.

As a working mother making over $50K a year in addition to "salary" proposed by the author of the weareglory blog post, the monetary value I bring to my family is well over $120K a year.  Anyone would agree that is a very substantial salary.  Why then is there so much focus on the "value" of a SAH parent but no talk on the "value" of a working parent.

Being a parent is the hardest job in the world without added pressure being placed on each other by other parents.  As a working mother I have personally experienced negative commentary from SAH parents about my lack of "love" or "care" for my child or that I am selfish for "going to work and leaving someone to take care of my kid."  To those people I say isn't being a parent hard enough itself without trying to tear each other down?  What is best for my household isn't necessarily what is best for the next person and its not fair to push anyone's agenda onto someone else.