There are ways to remain viable for employment and still not be in the workforce. I have gained many valuable skills as a stay-at-home mom that I might not have been given the opportunity to acquire if I had had a 9-to-5er for the last 15 years.

I just heard the other day that the unpaid work I do as a family manager is worth about $122,000 a year in today's economy.

Last week I went in on business to see an acquaintance who knows me from my volunteer work. I told her I was thinking about going into her field when I am free to do so in a few years. She handed me her card and said, "Come work for me!" She was serious. She knows how hard I work at my volunteer endeavors. She knows how hard it is to do what I do as a volunteer and still take care of my family.

I don't think the work I do at home is undervalued by the whole of society. I think certain segments of our society disdain it (feminists? eh, maybe. The word alone rankles me.) I also know there are certain segments of our society who hold it in high esteem (mostly religious communities). Fortunately, I don't get my self-worth from what some segments of society think of what I do. I get it from doing the right thing for me and my family.

I remember when there were commercials on TV about "displaced homemakers", advertising classes that would teach them marketable skills (typing pool?) so they could work after being dumped by their husbands and being "just" a homemaker for so long. Maybe the word they actually used was "housewives"...I can't recall. Anyway, if there are still women around who would be left in the lurch by a man who leaves them with no income and no way to make one, then that is a unimaginative woman who has not been paying attention the last 30 years. ::shrug:::

Karen