Saturday, August 13, 2011

Stay at home mom....what's it worth?

I am leaning towards being a stay-at-home mom. My problem is that I feel that I have to have a young baby to be worthy of staying at home. I have 7 kids but all are in school, the youngest is a third grader. I want to stay at home because as the years fly by I’m realizing more and more I don’t have much time left with any of them. I’m actually learning to stop and smell the roses along the journey.

But whenever I hear anyone talk about being a stay at home mom, the next thing I hear is that they have small children. Are there any parents out there, who came to the realization that they wanted to stay at home for their family but did not have small kids? I feel like if someone ask me what do I do and I tell them that I am a homemaker but I do not have small kids at home, they will say to me that you don't have a child at home during the day, so why are you not working until he comes home? Because for me, I’d make more money being a stay at home mom, if only there was a paycheck involved.

So what's a mom worth?

According to one report, $115,432 a year.

The most recent survey revealed that -- like many others -- Mom's compensation has gone down slightly. The 2011 results indicate that stay-at-home moms earned a base salary of $36,968 plus $78,464 in overtime, bringing her total compensation to $115,432.

Mothers working outside the home earned a "mom" base salary of $39,763 plus $23,709 in overtime totaling $63,472 in addition to the compensation from their day job.
According to this year's survey, the typical stay-at-home mom spends 13.2 hours as a day care center teacher; 3.9 hours as the family's CEO; 7.6 hours as a psychologist; 14.1 hours as a cook; 15.4 as a housekeeper; 6.6 hours doing laundry; 9.5 hours as a computer operator; 10.7 hours as a facilities manager; 7.8 hours as a janitor and 7.8hours as a van driver. Also uncovered was Mom's increased role as family psychologist and facilities manager and diminished role as CEO.

Hmmmm….I need to seriously consider this stay at home gig.