11 Responses to “How Much Is a Stay at Home Mom Worth?”

1. Steve Lyon Says:
   May 5th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

   While I agree all those jobs are worth that amount, the sad reality is that if stay at home moms were paid that amount, 99% would be fired after a week. This is nothing more than a PR stunt by Salary.com to bring attention and free press to themselves and find one more way to exploit women in the media.

   Think about it, if someone came over and saw the average home with a stay at home mom in their “day care” mode, how many would leave their children there to be cared for during the day. Not many. How many stay at home moms would still be on the job a week later for the job they did keeping the house clean? Not many.

   I’ll bet the folks at Salary.com counted talking on the phone to their girlfriends, their mother, etc. and watching Opera as paid time as well.

   It has been estimated that the average office worker in the U.S. wastes 2.5 hours of an 8 hour work day doing nothing … I think if the same was observed in stay at home moms, the number would escalate. I am not taking away anything from stay at home moms, their roles are vital in the household. But, comeon, let’s get serious, $138k? That is nearly four times what the average full time employee makes.

   Your wife needs to get real. She would be fired. Just because you do all those jobs, doesn’t mean she’s good at it.

   And what about you? I guess you could add onto your list, gardener, garbage collector, cook (if you do), therapist (to try and understand your wife), and why not also include play-by-play or color analyst as you make all those insightful comments during the game. Salary.com is a joke.

2. Hard Worker With No Pay Says:
   June 7th, 2007 at 7:59 pm

   Dear Steve,

   What a sexist thing to say! Belive it or not there are stay-at-home mothers that work extremely hard for their families and ask for VERY little (maybe just some respect every now and again).

   You must be a very bitter man to veiw mother’s in this way.

   What would your mother say about your comments, huh?

3. Anonymous Says:
   July 16th, 2007 at 2:51 pm

   My soon to be ex was a stay at home mom, she’s been working 2 years now and the house looks pretty much as it did when she was a SAHM.

   Is it sexist or just an unpleasant observation?

   My mom stayed home with 7 kids. The house was clean and dinner ready when Dad got home from work.

   My ex-stayed home with 3 kids. I cook and I clean. A lot of HGTV got watched and hobbies got done.

   We need to lose this “Man – Bad, Woman – Good” mentality.

   Marriage is a customer service relationship. If you don’t take care of your customer, somebody else will. Any business owner will tell you that it’s easy to get someone into your store to browse. A little harder to get them to become a customer. It takes real work to get repeat business.

   My ex thought that decorating had a higher priority than cleaning. I could always tell when we were going to have company – she’d straighten up the house and her garden was fabulous.

   Stay at Home Mom is a sacred role, not a holy title. If the image that comes to mind with the name is not one of service you’re not doing it right.

4. Anonymous Says:
   August 10th, 2007 at 10:39 am

   Steve,

   What you describe might be accutately labeled a “stay at home mom” (although it sounds more like the description of what, in the old days, was called a “bum”), but it does not describe a “homemaker” (i.e., a woman who actually wants to be a wife and mother and take care of a home and family). I feel really sorry that some men have such a low opinion of women who purposely choose to stay at home to raise a family. If this was your personal experience, you either didn’t choose her well, didn’t lead her well, or both.

   My wife is everything that the Salary.com article describes and I know, personally, of dozens of other families (all from my large Gaithersburg, MD church) that are just like my wife. My wife never watches TV and rarely does hobbies or decorating (although she would like to, it just doesn’t fit her extremely busy schedule doing everything else that needs to be done to raise four children). Its all about priorities.

   But, if it sooths your conscience, Salary.com also has a calculator to determine the cost of a dad’s fatherly activities (beyond those of his regualar day job). You’ll be happy to know that, in addition to whatever you earn during the day, a father gets credit for about 38 hours of work at home and this time is valued at about $72,000/year.

   So, you see, its not a publicity stunt on the part of Salary.com. They thought of you, too.

5. Deb Says:
   August 16th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

   I am NOT home to clean, I am home to care for my 2 kids. If I get around to some laundry and stuff I will do it! Its not my “job”, its my choice.

6. Anonymous Says:
   September 7th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

   Didn’t choose her well.

   Lead her well??? You can lead a horse to water….

   I don’t think Deb goes to your church.

7. Anonymous Says:
   November 6th, 2007 at 4:35 pm

   I have a hard time with this subject.
   It’s not a pissing match, it’s about the kids and the person you choose to marry and start a family with. My husband has no respect for stay at home mothers, but he also is 33 years old his mother has OCD with cleaning and an a weird obsession with her son, and he is a total mama’s boy. She is also very self righteous and undermining even to my husbands three year old daughter (she insulted her after she sang a nursery rhyme wrong). I came from a very loving affectionate family and my heart says I should stay at home with my 1 year old and in two weeks my newborn. My husband yelled at me during labor because I asked him to turn down the volume on the DVD player and made me hyperventilate 3 times during my hospital stay. Then I came home to criticism my him and his mother only after 2 my baby was 2 months old saying that I was screwing up our daughter because I never left her alone with anyone. All different kinds of insults were pouring in. I was having trouble breastfeeding for the 7 months I managed to do it because of stress. Could barley take care of myself or the house because I became so depressed. All my energy went to this little child I tried so hard with to be a loving mother. Then my husband started blowing me off and never really even acknowledged either one of us. Then he would come home for a half hour during the day, walk through the house with his muddy boots, leave his work clothes scattered around the house, throw garbage in the sink, leave urine all over the toilet, leave hair after shaving all over the floor and sink, and then would proceed in telling me how lazy and useless I was while I was pregnant with our 2nd child.
   Everyones different and its not the early 1900’s where kids are seen not heard, if I were to keep the house spotless and have dinner ready as well everyday, I’d have to practically ignore my children. To top it off the money my husband makes rarely goes to bills, but to fast food with friends, hunting equipment, and energy drinks. Then he tells me I need to get a job because we can’t afford to pay the bills. So men if you want perfection, go marry your mother! With the way society is with sex and violence these days I’d rather live in a dirty home with lots of love, then a spotless home with no less or no love. Most mothers have done both (stay at home mom and busting their butts at a full time job) Most men have not. I myself have done both and can say that raising children is far more demanding and selfless then working a job. And I’ve cared for people with mental retardation who had mild MR with extremely bad behaviors!

8. Anonymous Says:
   March 19th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

   You may want to leave your husband.

9. Anonymous Says:
   May 1st, 2008 at 11:38 am

   Steve, Try being a stay at home father for one year. You will definitely have a new respect for stay at home mothers. Having a regular job is a vacation compared to what stay at home mothers have to do on a daily basis. I worked for 20 years in the golf buisness and now a full time stay at home dad. What an eye opener! We have four beautiful children ages 2-4-6-8, 3 boys and 1 baby girl who wants constant attention. My wife is a full time pharmacists which has enabled me to be home with my children. Greatest job in the world but very time consuming. I’m going all the time and keeping my home in navy ship shape. So, enjoy your job that you have because its nothing compared to what stay at home parents go through. RER

10. Anonymous Says:
    May 27th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    I think men (and women) who take this seriously-are just a little too self absorbed.

    I also think some of you missed the point. Why don’t ya’ll re-read the article and just look at the black and white print.

11. MF Says:
    March 13th, 2011 at 10:06 am

    I find all of these comical so say the least. I stayed at home for 20 years with my 4 children. Off and on I did what I could to bring in a few extra dollars, like running a daycare for 6 more kids. I busted my butt most of the time and certainly welcomed the time’s I could sit and breath. I could have cared less about how much money I was worth as a stay at home mom until now. I have now been working in the real world for almost 2 years now. The funny thing is, my salary is pretty low for a 40 year old. Mainly because for 20 years while my husband was furthering his career while we chose for me to stay home, I lost out on the opportunity to further mine. Now my husband wants me to contribute to the bills when my salary barely covers my gas, money put into OUR savings and a few odd -n- ends like stopping at the grocery store or whatever. I am finding it hard to get through to my husband that I would be making a whole heck of a lot more money at this point of my life, if I hadn’t made the sacrifice to stay at home with the kids. I don’t regret making that sacrifice but I’m starting to wonder if I made the right choice.