by Suzanne Fort

Created on: June 16, 2008   Last Updated: June 17, 2008

Years ago I would've laughed at the idea of a househusband. I am willing to accept both woman and man working, but it used to seem crazy to have a husband stay home. Typically, the man ends up getting a better wage than the woman. My sister and her husband changed my way of thinking.

My sister's husband was the breadwinner the entire marriage until recently. My sister would work as a Nurse once in a while, but not often. My sister decided to get her Nurse Practitioner license from a local university. They moved to Hawaii after that. Aron worked at a department store as a manager. After a year of trying to live off of that wage, they moved back to Washington state.

My sister had their third child. They had an option of living off a department store manager wage or a Nurse Practitioner wage. They chose the second. They have three children under five, so daycare isn't a very inexpensive option. Aron decided to stay home. Aron cleans the house, cooks dinner, and transports the kids where they need to be. I never thought I'd see that scenerio work, but it does.

Having the man stay home is only something that would work if the man cleaned, cooked, and took care of the kids as well as Aron did. If the man just sits home, lets the children mess it all up, and doesn't cook, he might as well be working.

The research shows that women end up working twice as hard as a man when they come home from work. If you're the woman, work all day and then have to work all night, your husband should be out working too. I agree that if a woman stays home, she should do the same. She should have the household in order and food cooked for the husband. Both people should be pulling their weight no matter if they're working in or out of the house.

There is also a problem with some men not being as nurturing as a woman would be. The research says that women are naturally more nurturing than the man. I am not entirely convinced. There are some women who are not as nurturing as their husband though. It just depends on your own personalities. You need to have open communication to decide what the best route is for you own family. Decide who will make more money and who will be better with the children.

In my opinion, the term "housewife" or "househusband" is outdated. Does anyone just stay home and tend the house unless they have children? The women might have done that years ago, but I don't hear of that much today.

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