Fathers & Finances

We talked a lot this week about working mothers and the effect that has on the family. I found it interesting that while many mothers go to work to help support the family and bring more money to the table, they actually typically end up spending just as much if not more money as they make on day care for the kids. So in all reality, it doesn't make any more money for the family.
There are also many women who feel that being a stay-at-home mom is a waist of time and a waist of a college education that they spend oh so much money on. But I think that there is great value in a full-time homemaker. Yes, to the world it may seem as if going to college, getting an education, spending thousands and thousands of dollars and four or more years on a higher education that "won't ever be used" would be pointless, but it is a great benefit to the home. Parents are children's first teachers. From day one, they are teaching them everything, even things they don't realize that they are teaching. Not only will an educated home-maker be beneficial in the sense that it will help mom be a better teacher to her children, but it is also proven that educated parent's have better relationships with their spouses and their children. There are other ways that a homemaker can get intellectual stimulation. Continue to go to school, join a book club, keep updated with the news and what is going on, etc. In a religious aspect, we learn that all the knowledge we obtain in this life will carry over with us to the eternities, so we might as well get as much as we can, even if we may feel that "we aren't using it".