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139 points cdepman | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.225s | source
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bcatanzaro ◴[] No.23882880[source]
Stay-at-home moms are another big reason for this besides the missionary experience. It is very common for Utah Mormon women to stay at home raising children.

The traditional full-time workplace totally disrespects that choice. SAHMs are not compensated for the hard work they do. It makes sense they would look for something part time to do to make a little money and think about something besides kids. But how can they do that in the traditional American workplace that expects 40+ hours a week and a resume with no gaps?

Many MLMs are built for SAHMs. They build on SAHM social networks and many of them are explicitly about making domestic life more bearable (kitchen gadgets, home goods, clothes, beauty and health products).

I think there’s a story here about SAHMs as a neglected overlooked and disrespected population, and how MLMs fill a need for them.

BTW, I hate MLMs generally, I’m just pointing out that Mormon missionary service isn’t the only thing attracting MLMs to Utah.

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dgut ◴[] No.23882973[source]
Is there any region of the world that respects SAHM besides Scandinavian countries? I feel like this is one of the most important issues we're facing today. Separating kids from their parents for most of the day after three months can't possibly be good.
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humaniania ◴[] No.23883246[source]
Depends on the quality of the average parenting skills.
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1. throwawaygh ◴[] No.23883472[source]
Not just skills, but also buy-in.

My mother was a SAHM by social convention, but it's not what she wanted for her life. She was miserable and it effected our lives deeply. She went back to work full-time (making more than my father even after >10 years out of the labor force). My younger siblings went to a well-run up-scale daycare with professionals who were passionate about child development and had none of the self-loathing/depression of a reluctant SAHM.

Suffice it to say: I need therapy and my siblings don't.

I think the social value of the SAHM is vastly over-estimated. It's basically a "good old days" lemonade and football fallacy.