I have been a stay at home mother off and on since my first child was born 16 years ago. I heard constantly that being a stay at home mom is not right. I should be out there working and helping to support my family. A friend of mine has never been unemployed since she was 16. When she went on maternity leave about two years ago, she graduated college with a degree in teaching while on leave. After her six weeks of maternity leave, she found a full-time substitute position at an elementary school which led to a contract the next school year. The same people that ridiculed me for being a stay at home mom then ridiculed her for leaving her child at daycare so she could work. She has a wonderful husband who is involved in every aspect of her and their child’s life. They both spend equal amounts of time being a parent, individually and together. I see no suffering from the child because he does not have a stay at home mom. What I do see is a happy, healthy, well cared for, and loved child who has two very loving and involved parents, just as my children have and are, even though I am a stay at home mom. According to Nancy Chodorow, to have happy, healthy, and well balanced children both parents should be equally responsible for raising their children and both work outside the home. I partially agree with her theory. I agree that both parents should be equally responsible in raising their children, however, I do not agree that in order to raise happy, healthy, and well balanced children both parents must work outside the home.
“Chodorow argues that gender identity is socially constructed differently for women and men because women are the primary family caretakers. This inequality can be corrected by a fundamental reorganization of parenting” (Moore & Bruder, 2011, p. 472). Basically, Chodorow is arguing that a mother’s place is not in the proverbial kitchen. She