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I am offended by the topic title! I am an old lady now (64), but even when I was a young mother, staying at home with one's children was not financially possible for a whole lot of "working women." I personally did it only when I had three pre-school children and a babysitter cost as much as I earned.

The years with my pre-school kids were enjoyable. These years also were darned hard financially. I think my children and I bonded a bit more than if I'd been working, but NOT much. Often I was so frazzled from having to work with our one-income lifestyle that I had little time for the quality time working mothers can choose to have.

In order to make things work on that one-income I had to revert back to what I'd learned as a child of depression-age survivors. I gardened and canned. I taught myself to sew and made most of the children's clothing and all of my own. I used every budget-stretcher that my mother, who did grow up during the depression, practiced.

Hey...anyone want to know how to stretch one ham into about 8 different meals? Yeah, that kind of stretch...and a whole lot of "filling" beans.

It was not easy then (I'm talking '60's) for an otherwise middle-class woman who was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth to stay home and raise children. Expenses are so much heavier today that most two-parent families can't afford to live on one salary; single parents are in even worse shape. Becoming a stay-at-home mom just is not an option.

As soon as my kids went to school (almost 40 years ago), I (a) went to college so I could get better jobs, and (b) went back to work. I still managed to "be there" for my kids. We dealt with daily issues EVERY DAY after school and after work, something my never-working mother did not do because she was totally frustrated and bored at being stuck at home and not valued.

What time I had after school/work with my kids was quality time - when I focused on my children instead of lamenting about my own unfulfilled needs. My oldest child went on to get a PhD from M.I.T. My second child has a master's in Business Administration. My youngest has three degrees...one 2-year in fire science, plus two B.S. degrees. As adults, they have life's usual problems, but hey, I had a "mother-at-home" and I still had a whole lot of problems growing up and coping afterwards.

Today, there's a trend for upscale families to again have a stay-at-home mother. This is great when people can afford to do this. I

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