The machine needs them to work, it will eventually swing back

🤣

I’ve recorded hundreds of people telling their life stories, many people in their 80s, more than half from farms. This is my perspective of the way things used to be:

They were working at home. Gardening, canning, washing clothes, bookkeeping. They cooked and often ran side hustles like selling eggs or running boarding houses. It was full time work, with limited ability to control the finances of the family. They had a vital role in the family.

When commodity prices dropped women’s labor brought more value to the family leaving the farm to go to the city for administrative work. They quickly realized that they could attain higher levels of salary if they got an education.

They didn’t want to, they did it as a result of inflation. As the generations passed they didn’t know anything else.

I suspect full time moms have a serious meaning crisis after children are a certain age because most of their effort is chosen, rather than a necessity.

I live in a neighborhood with almost 100% stay at home moms - only the families with 5+ kids seem to not be on Prozac.

Growing up the messaging that my peers are I received was that we could do anything. The lie being that it's possible to do everything. Have a career, be a mum. And have a fulfilling relationship. I know I was made to feel that being 'just a mum' was to have failed. That I SHOULD be doing so much more. Anyway, women can do whatever they want but need to know that there are tradeoffs and doing it 'all' is a myth.