Me? Not work???

So today there was an article on cnn.com about women without children who choose to stay home and take care of the household instead of having a job (http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/05/lw.nokids.nojob.wives/index.html). I saw the article, but didn't bother to read it. After all, it doesn't apply to me, right?

But then everywhere I went, people were talking about the article. Well, more correctly, women were talking about the article. To many, the very idea of women, in this day and age, choosing to stay home with no children to raise seems to be beneath what women have become. After all, women today have every educational advantage and workplaces that celebrate diversity and offer flexible work schedules. We have laws that protect our rights in the workplace, and HR departments that make sure we aren't groped at the copier. We have our own paychecks, our own retirement plans, our own corner offices! Heck, there are more women than men today completing college degrees, and surely they aren't all there just for their MRS.

So I read the article, and was left perplexed. What on earth do these women do all day? The tasks they listed couldn't keep me busy for more than a day and a half, two days tops--I mean, a whole day devoted to laundry for just two people? Does she not have a washing machine? Is she using a washboard? pounding out each item with rocks???

Don't get me wrong--who wouldn't want time to cook a gourmet meal, catch up with the gardening or read a book? Who wouldn't want to work less and be at home more? But there has to be a happy medium between being devoted to a job and being devoted to housework. For every husband with a stay-at-home wife who is less stressed because of her home-making efforts, surely there is another husband who is more stressed at work because his wife won't get out of the home and get a job to share the burden of paying the bills.

So I asked Mr. Y, just such a money-loving husband, how he feels about the article (well, first I had to explain the article because he hadn't read it--apparently it wasn't a hot topic for men to discuss at work today). I asked him if he would be less stressed if I was home all day taking care of things and not contributing to our income. He actually had to think about it! And after deliberation, he decided that if that's what I want to do, we'll cut back as needed and we'll make it happen. (Um, honey, that's not what I asked!)

Maybe I just didn't explain it well enough. I don't know. But tomorrow I am going to work.