From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!npois!houxm!houxa!houxb!houxq!houxo!wakeup Newsgroups: net.women Title: Re: re: children Article-I.D.: houxo.145 Posted: Thu Jan 27 11:53:42 1983 Received: Sun Jan 30 05:43:47 1983 References: utcsrgv.928 I too like the idea of men staying at home and the women working, possibly on an alternating basis. I do feel it is impracticle. I can see myself in a job interview after staying at home for 3 years: "What have you been doing for this three year gap in work?" "Well, I have been at home watching my children grow, doing house work and supporting my wife in her career." "What about YOUR career? Are you going to quit after 3 years here so your wife can work again?" "Well....." I think that assuming you are not physically moving about that you will soon run out of possible employers after a couple of rounds of job alternation. This assumes that the kind of job you are looking for demands a certain skill or education. And if it does how are you going to stay uptodate during your off times. I prefer to go the parttime route. Let both parents work about 3 days(hopefully the same three days). this leaves 4 days per week you can be together as a family, have time to counteract the bad influences the child experiences at daycare or babysitters, have time to do the house work, and maybe have time to do special activites most parents do not have time for such as trips, both educational and for fun.(WOW, that was some run on sentence, sorry.) The basic problem with this idea is still the over importance employers place in career minded people. As an emgineer I do not see any employer letting me work parttime for an extended period of time especially since I am a male.I asked for such a plan once and got a resounding NO WAY. Even my wife who works got the same reply. Companies feel that work and career are the only thing which should be of importance to a person. If a career is not imortant than either work somewhere else or don't work at all. This I feel is a very poor attitude. Many people want more than work in their life. Also many people have talents and skills to offer the companies, and at the same time want an escape form home to maintain sanity and want to work for that type of fulfillment. I feel companies should be more flexible to people's needs in this area.