What would a house wife earn?

[Emily]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252504.stm

According to this information more than the national average in the UK.

I have popped a link to a British news website. It points out what a housewife would earn if paid for their role.

I feel that we do make a huge unpaid economic contribution to the world, in terms of care and support assisting our loved ones to be the best they can.

I do feel that this is an interesting point.

What do you guys think our value in money is? Although I feel our value is more than money in terms of life quality. I am a happy bunny.

[Aphie]

I think I'm severely underpaid!

My partner has kinda "gone limp" in terms of housework and family commitments since we moved in together last year. It's a struggle to get him not to leave dirty socks all over the loungeroom and models from his hobby spread across the dining room table for more than a week. I'm only marginally tidier, but I really resent that I either end up cleaning up after him or hounding him till he does it himself - and it'd be quicker for me to just do it in the first place. (In case you can't tell, I thought the last three paragraphs of the article were most interesting!)
I know I do more housework than either our housemate or our unemployed, adult (male) housemate - and that when visitors come round, without knowing this it's ME they blame the state of the house on. Neither of the males I live with even seem to be expected by others to contribute to stuff like dusting or cleaning the toilet, but even when in the throes of first trimester morning sickness I've had some rather nasty comments from my parents in law regarding "the state of your house".
My partner gives me a chunk of his paycheck each fortnight - but the amount's not formalised, and quite frankly I'm sure I'm getting less than any PA doing what I do would get paid.


That said, from first living on my own, and then with virtual strangers in a sharehouse in London I've developed the habit of "tidying as you go", incorporating household chores into other things I'm doing so that I don't notice them so much. I can't stand devoting hours at a time to a single chore - I'll often begin to put clean dishes from the rack away as I wait for the kettle to boil, or run the dishwater extra hot and soak pots and pans whilst playing a round of Sims and waiting for it to cool enough to put my hands into. So my partner has claimed it looks like I do a lot less than I actually do.

[Emily]

I think you mist have the ground rules set on how things should run from the start, hoping there will be family bliss organically growing is a myth.

Me and my husband set the ground rules on money and chores from the start. Including money. I never wanted to have to ask, so I get an amount into my own personal account to spend as I wish on anything, and another amount for house stuff.

This way I never feel hard done by and he knows better than the criticize the house cleanliness, he feels happy that the home is clean, but we still find other things to argue about such is life.

But communication is the key there,

[Tracy!]

Interesting...

I wouldn't get paid much, my husband and I both detest housework. Once a month or so we have a huge clean up and go nuts but mostly it's just keeping things from looking grotesque/keeping dishes out of the sink. We both have been known to leave things laying around so I can't fault him for that since I do it too...
He earns LOTS more than I ever will being a freelance writer *unless I pop out a few hundred novels* but our funds our just that, ours. We also both work from home but I do the bulk of the childcare, and probably more house stuff but only because he's working his butt off...

I don't know if I think woman should get paid for keeping their homes in order etc (it's your chose) but I do think woman should get some sort of funding or something (especially mothers who stay home) in case something ever happened.

[Aphie]

I don't know if I think woman should get paid for keeping their homes in order etc (it's your chose)
I hear this argument bandied about a lot. It frustrates me, because it's not a choice that women make in isolation - women are STILL expected to do the majority of childcare and cleaning by Western society in general. Women are the only ones who can get pregnant and carry a child (a fact that certainly affected my decision to become a housewife rather than keep trying to re-enter the workforce), and the ones expected to breastfeed a child (Apparently with hormonal and dietary help, many men can do this).
And the average wage for a woman is still only a percentage of the average wage for a male - so the "choice" is not so much one of "ooh, which of us wants to stay home?", but a matter of "can we afford it?" weighed up against outside social pressures and the health of potential offspring. I don't really think that's much of a free "choice".

[That said, I don't know where the "housewife pay" is actually supposed to come from, and I'm not really sure if anybody SHOULD be paid for keeping their own home in order - but a better understanding and acknowledgement(sp?) of the contribution house-spouses make to families and society would be nice.] :)

[Marta Jespersen]

As a Canadian mother the government provides me with the Canadian Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) which is non-taxable. The amount is minimal and barely covers more than wipes and diapers (200.00 CDN for two kids) but it's something. In terms of being payed to stay home with the kids? I don't think I'd want to get paid. In this day and age it's a privelege to stay home and just simply be mom/wife/self. I know that this is going to sound "anti-feminist" but, I truly believe that women were created for motherhood. Even if you remove religion you cannot deny that 99.9% of the Mammals have mothers which care for the children until they've reached maturity. The cool thing about the wild is that moms aren't just moms they're predators/providers, they play the role of protector and they find shelter if and when neccessary. In my opinion in comparison to the animal kingdom we have it pretty good. We have dishwashers, ovens, washers/dryers, cars, grocery stores and husbands who are willing to commit to us and their offspring. It really doesn't get much better than that. So yeah, it's a privelege to be at home with the kids (even if it's only 4 months out of the year)

[Marion]

Such a bunch of baloney those things are. Nothing I do is worth much. If I was to hire someone to do what I do I would pay 20-30K/yr.

Picking up the house, making dinner, letting dogs in and out, watch TV, read a book, and running kids to activities is NOT worth more than that.

[Amy V.]

My hubs' theory on the subject, and I see his point (but may not 100% agree) is that the housewife places the value of her work as 1/2 of the total household bills.

[Marion]

I like that theory, Amy. That's quite sensible.