Lori Alexander: Women Can't Be Nurses and Raise Children

[Hisey]

Irresponsible not to work, irresponsible to work = one extreme to another

I agree. Why must we judge each other's choices?

I am a SAHM who gets very irritated by Lori's comments that working moms are not raising their kids. What an idiot! That is hardly true. There's a working mom living next door to me, who is raising her kids beautifully. Plus, I wonder if Lori ever thinks about how hurtful her words are to working moms.

With that said, I don't think it's right to say "it makes no sense" for women to stay at home. That is more of that "one size fits all" thinking. I stay at home and there are many reasons I know it is right--for our family. We would not have made this choice if it "made no sense" for us financially. It may not be the choice that will make us the richest, but we have made sure we will not be destitute if my husband were to be disabled or (God forbid) die.

It really "makes no sense" to have a blanket rule for every family.

[lilwriter85]

And now it's gone.

My guess is that Lori didn't notice the welfare part earlier and did later on and was pissed.

[slickcat79]

It's easy to throw away a comment like that when it's not actually a choice that you have ever faced. It's damn insensitive to those who HAVE had to face that choice.

Does she know exactly what the alternative would have been for her single mother? Does she know what is required to obtain welfare and stay eligible? Does she know that "I'm healthy and have a healthy child, but refuse to work or go to school/training until my child is 18 and would like to receive welfare benefits during that time" is not a plan that welfare workers will support? Does she know that welfare benefits often don't pay enough to realistically provide basic needs? Does she appreciate that the risks of living in some housing projects are objectively far, far more serious that any imagined risk of daycare, and that working can be the difference when it comes to having safe housing?

Yeah, really. I would hope she appreciated that food and clothing and housing that allowed her to grow to adulthood, which were (most likely) paid for by her single mother's job. I hope this one is just trolling.

[chaotic life]

In the years I was a SAHM, I considered my training and licensure in nursing to be an insurance policy. We had life insurance on both of us. However, knowing I could go back to work meant I knew that if he was disabled, or if he left me, then I could still provide for my family.

Seriously though, I do NOT understand the idea that NURSES don't get to spend time with their families. I recommend nursing as a career to single mothers all the time precisely because you can easily work full-time with benefits and yet be home more than not. I know a single mother who worked weekend nightshift and was home to homeschool during the week for years.