What is the purpose of this link?
I don't know how it works out in practice but in theory, I am for having a loving, competent relative or quasi-relative taking care of children whenever possible. Mom, dad, grandma, etc all fine as long as it works and all parties are reasonably happy with the arrangement.
Word to dads considering it: It's harder than it looks. Something about the job makes it a real morale sink. Since more women than men do it, it's easier for women to plug into a support network. Hopefully dads will have that someday, too.
As opposed to how many couples where the mom is the stay at home parent or both parents are working? Marriage in general tends not to work if you look at the US population.
In the US, there are over 100,000 families that are making it work. In fact, it has become a norm in some other countries.
I don't think going back to work after a few years means it didn't work. Plenty of mothers go back to work after a few years, after having enjoyed being home with their children when they were very small.
Divorce, that's not good, but I don't think I buy that it's a higher risk for couples where the dad stays home with the kids.
I should not have posted in a rush.
Context: My dad was a SAHD with me for a few years and though I was too young to know the details, from what I understand it worked out beautifully given their career situations and me being an accident that messed with their plan.
I was Googling/looking for commentary on SAHDs while I was considering whether or not to go for a PhD; this is where I found the link that I posted. The link was mostly to note her questions at the end (should have specified). The one that drew me most was
Is being a stay-at-home dad any different than the life that Betty Friedan and Sylvia Plath worked so hard to get away from?
I just read Plath's
The Bell Jar earlier this year (about her serious depression, as well as her hate for the expectation to be The Good Wife/playing on greek/Jungian themes. From reading all sorts of Jewish/Christian/secular/male/female blogs, my understanding is that (in general, never
always) it works really well if it's seen as a transitory thing for a few years (and from my understanding that was the case with my parents when I was young) but if it's a serious, long term thing the men (generally!) simply cannot connect successfully with SAHMs because they are different, and they cannot connect with working at the office kinds of dads, and they feel very isolated. (A la Plath's book.)
I'm all for it, I just think that if it's a loong term thing, it is just incredibly unlikely to work out. (From my earlier research. I'm single and don't really have a career yet, so I don't think I researched that heavily, just enough to satiate the typical INxJ needing information to make an informed decision. Because I'm not going to be a SAHM.) The men cannot connect socially because they don't fit in anywhere, and after several years, they lose themselves which isn't good for anyone.