Sparked by a conversation I had with a friend. When and where I grew up, a lot of my friends’ moms worked outside the home, mostly part time and mostly as retail or service workers, or secretaries. A few teachers and nurses, a few factory workers. One of my friends’ mom was a psychologist and that blew my mind, lol. I’m 55, for reference.
Did your mom work outside the home? Full time or part time, and what did she do? My mom worked on and off, always part time, as a secretary. My friend’s mom was a SAHM but did a lot of volunteer work for the library and the park system.
Post by schrodinger on Jan 29, 2022 12:26:37 GMT -5
I’m early 40s, with two younger siblings. My mom SAH until my youngest sister was in school, then worked outside the home. Her background was in sociology but she ended up working in more marketing type jobs at a few different places.
I'm in my early 30s, my mom owned a residential and commercial cleaning company when I was really little and she was a single mom. She stayed home after she married my step dad.
I’m 39. My mom worked part-time outside the home at a grocery store at night, then opened an in-home daycare after the last kid, then worked at a hospital part time at night and used the tuition reimbursement to get her RN for free and became a nurse in her mid-40s. She started working full time as a nurse when the youngest was going into high school and has for the last 15+ years.
Post by maudefindlay on Jan 29, 2022 12:31:14 GMT -5
I'm 45 and my Mom was an x-ray tech and later ran a lab at a doctor's office. Shortly before I was born my parents bought a furniture store and she worked there. It was flexible in that she could run out to pick me or my brother up and if Dad wasn't there she could put up a sign "be back in....". After school until 3rd grade we had to walk to the store and hang out there till 5 when Mom went home. There was a desk to do homework and they had a little tv. We also dressed the windows and modeled. When Dupont came out with their stain free carpet I had a whole spiel I would do for customers that involved a white carpet sample, a can of Big Red, and every ounce of drama I could muster. Once we hit 3rd grade we could walk home, but we had to call Mom immediately when we got there. I still have the store ph# memorized.
Post by emilyinchile on Jan 29, 2022 12:32:34 GMT -5
Yes. I'm 36 (ETA: and my mom was 38 when she had me, so well established in her career). By the time I was old enough to be aware of things, she was a director and later partner/founder level, all in international investment banking. My mom was often the only woman in the pictures of finance deals she worked on in the 80s and basically a total badass.
Yes. I'm 36. My mom was a kinder teacher. She'd SAH for varying amounts of time after each kid was born (I'm the youngest of 5) and then return to work PT until each kid entered kinder/1st grade. She went back to work when my twin sister and I were 9 months old. She was an amazing teacher! Everyone loved her and wanted their kids to be in her class.
ETA: my MIL was a SAHM & 'home schooled' my H and SIL. She worked FT for one year when H was in 6th grade and SIL was in 9th grade. So H and SIL stayed home and didn't do 6th grade/9th grade. H played video games all day every day and SIL read. The home schooling was weird; very piece meal and lackadaisical.
My paternal grandma never worked (to my knowledge). My maternal grandma divorced my grandpa when my mom was 8/9, went to school to become a teacher and taught 3rd grade until her early 70s when cancer forced her to retire. Once she beat cancer she tutored women at our local community college for a good 5-10 years.
My mom was a teacher then stayed home once I was born. She became the childcare coordinator at our church when I was in high school because she could work while we were at school. She went back to teaching when I was in college and has been teaching for 21 years.
Yes. My mom worked full time and almost all of my friends’ moms did too. She really wanted to stay home with us but it was not a financial possibility. As it was with 2 incomes, we still didn’t have much money.
I SAH now with my kids. I don’t know if it’s more common, or that’s just the crowd I see, or it’s because we live in an area with generally higher incomes, but it seems like there are many more SAH parents at our school than I ever remember as a kid.
Post by ProfessorArtNerd on Jan 29, 2022 12:37:24 GMT -5
Im 42. My mom worked part time at Clover (like a Philly specific Target) til I was in 3rd grade. She also substitute taught in my school and others a couple years, leading up to her teaching full time.
Yes. She was an RN; a visiting nurse for a home health care service. I think she was part-time when we were younger and then went more full time as we got older. She transitioned to a patient care coordinator role in a hospital at some point, and did that until she retired in 2013. She retired kind of early; she had a really hard time continuing to work in the hospital where she watched her mom pass away in 2012.
I’m 53. In the 70s, my mom didn’t work and neither did any of the others on the street, except one two blocks down who was a lawyer.
She went back to work in the early 80s scheduling Red Cross blood drives. She eventually rose to be the head of a benefits department while I was in college. Mine was really the first generation where most women went to college expecting to have a career.
My mom worked part time as an administrator in the registrar department of a local university. She worked 15 hours a week (9 - 2 T-Th) except for one week in January and two weeks in August when she worked 40 hours a week during on site registration.
My mom was a mortgage broker until I was born in the early 80s. She stayed home but did lots of part time jobs. She was a home health aid for awhile and a bookkeeper at night at home. When I was in the 8th grade she got hired as my school librarian. She did that job until she retired when C was born. She was a damn good librarian and really meant to do that work
Yes, she worked FT as a secretary. I'm in my early 40s and I didn't know more than a few SAHMs growing up in the 80s. As a FT working outside the home mom now, I'm much more the outlier than I expected.
Post by plutosmoon on Jan 29, 2022 12:45:01 GMT -5
My mom is 76, she became a sahm when my older sister was born, my siblings and I are all early to mid 40s. She had a successful state government career and earned her MBA prior to being a SAHM, she looks back and wishes she had gone back part time when my younger brother started elementary school, she did go back to work part time when I was in college for a few years to get her last social security quarters, her ss benefit from working is more than she would get under my dad's record (he's a retired fed) so it made sense for her to finish her quarters.
My grandmothers both worked full time, dad's mom on and off, and mom's mom once she was in elementary school until she retired. My mom wanted us to have what she didn't, she missed out on a lot as a 1950s kid with a working mom. My mom did a lot of volunteer work in the schools and was on the school board in my small town for many years.
I’m 37. My mom was a labor and delivery nurse and typically worked three 12 hour days a week. When I was younger it was nights but once I was in elementary school, she switched to days.
My mom had 2 part-time jobs, school bus driver and convenience store cashier. She worked quite a bit, but the convenience store was a block from our house, so we could walk down to see her if we needed to.
My mom stayed home until I was in junior high (I’m the youngest of two). She did a series of part-time jobs that got her back in the swing of things and then spent 15 years in two different jobs at a local university.
My mom worked full time at a bank in downtown Chicago until I was six. Then she was a SAHM for a few years when she had her 3rd kid. When my brother started school with us, she went back to work part time as a school bus driver so she would have holidays and summers off with us. She loved that job. She made good friends and had great benefits. She retired from that job with a great pension after about 20 years.
Post by lilypad1126 on Jan 29, 2022 12:52:42 GMT -5
I’m 41 and yes, my mom worked. She’s a nurse and worked full time until she had me, then went part time until my my you get sister started kindergarten. She went back to work full time then and worked until she was laid off/retired 18 months ago at 67. She now works part time as a care giver/helper for an elderly woman.
As far as friends parents, all their mothers worked, too. Very few stay at home moms in my circle in the 80s and 90s.
I'm 40 and my mom SAH until I was in K, then worked part time until I was in mid-elementary, and full time after that. She did various bookkeeper, office manager, and receptionist types of jobs.
I’m 40 and my brother is 32. She started SAH when I was in K, after my grandmother died. (My brother wasn’t born yet.) She finished her masters while pregnant with him, and went back to work (she worked as a para then) when he was in elementary school. She was the only SAHM among my friends parents. My brothers friends had many more SAHMs, but my mom was much older than them.
Early 40s. My mom was laid off a few months before I was born and never worked again. My dad was not some high income earner, either, so I truly wonder how they did it.
Post by pinkdutchtulips on Jan 29, 2022 12:54:17 GMT -5
My mom was a sahm until I was 14. When I was 14 she finished her M.Ed and returned to classroom teaching. She taught school for a few years, shelved it to raise 4 kids, then resumed it when the youngest was in 3rd grade. She stayed in the classroom until she retired in 2012.
My mom worked off and on. She worked at a bank when I was really young and we went to home based babysitters. Then she didn’t work for most of my elementary school time, then she was a lunch lady during my middle school years (So embarrassing to my 11-13 yo self!), then she continued to work at the schools some and then worked for a health company doing filing type stuff. She had a teaching degree (I think) and may have done some teaching in typing before I was born, but she’s always been vague about it. I’m 46 and the oldest
Intermittently. My parents are divorced and my mom basically had full-time custody. She worked various sales jobs throughout my childhood - real estate, car sales, retail. Anything that would allow her to work mostly weekends and/or days.
I’m late 30s. None of my friends mom’s worked. They all had a working dad and SAHM.