photo: manicmermaid.com
I’ve been thinking lately about the ongoing unpaid support that families (with kids in particular) have to contend with in order to “succeed” at life (post on how to identify if it works for you coming soon…). That inevitably leads to conversations within my network and I’ve noticed a trend and come to a type of conclusion and I’m writing it down to begin my requests for validation :)
In any major metro area in the US, can we collectively agree, unless you make >xxx,xxx, you need two incomes in order to support yourselves, much less kids? So with two incomes in play, how often is the income skewed one way and a lot of the unpaid work typically falling to one with in the lower income? Lately as financial topics have become more acceptable
to have, one segment of my network is standing in direct contrast with this as the unpaid work is falling disproportionately to the parent with higher income.
So parents of kids - does this ever exist as a pendulum? Like at young ages one parent is more primary and then at any extended point, does that ever change and go the other way?
Definitions:
Unpaid Work/Support: Used interchangeably and intended to mean things like keeping up a house (laundry, cleaning, paying bills, etc), playing taxi and watcher (school, extra curricular activities, play dates), and physical/emotional support/availability (which for a person like me is more draining than all other activities combined!).
Primary parent: a parent who is assumed to be responsible for vast majority of child related duties (feeding, bathing, bedtime routine, sick leave when they’re sick, etc)
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