To Work or Stay Home? An Economist Digs into the Research
Moms who stay home with their kids do make a difference, but if you decide that working outside the home is the right thing for you, you are by no means ruining your kid’s life.
Moms who stay home with their kids do make a difference, but if you decide that working outside the home is the right thing for you, you are by no means ruining your kid’s life.
In Being There, Erica Komisar pushes back against the prevailing commentary on what a mom should do once she has a baby is “find childcare and get back to life as normal.” Instead, Komisar argues that mothers should spend significant time being present with their children in the first three years of life—quitting their jobs if necessary. While this is obviously a big ask, Komisar maintains that a mother’s contribution to her children’s emotional health is invaluable, and she says that she is “not ready to give up on mothers” just yet. However, in the process she paints the commitment to “be there” in such extremes that she manages to offend just about everyone in the course of the book (including stay-at-home moms who are purportedly doing what she recommends).
Founder of Economic Equity for Moms analyzes Biden’s American Families Plan, and assesses which families will benefit most if the plan is passed.
Even though this book is 18 years old, its message remains fresh, relevant, and unresolved. One-income families struggle to compete in a two-income world, and two-income families remain fragile in times of calamity.