Anna T is beating the bones of her dead horse

[fundiefan]

Again, Anna T is vilifying women who dare to work, for any reason. Teachers and social workers have 'jobs', not careers, and they don't make enough money for what they do to serve any kind of purpose. Because we all know the only reason women/mothers work is because they've been brainwashed and don't know anything, at best. Poor fools, we are.

All you women who have jobs and not careers, you're doing it wrong. In case you didn't get the message the one hundred other times you've been told by the one who knows all, Mrs. Anna T. You weak women are choosing to dress nice over properly caring for your kids; you aren't making enough money to matter; you aren't being fulfilled. You are fooling yourselves and doing life wrong. You need to spend your days cleaning and napping and resting and being fulfilled by the 'little' things - you know, those 'little things' you will never get if you are so selfish and/or brainwashed to work a mere job outside your home.

Some say they must work for the money. Interestingly enough, those are often women who work as preschool teachers or social workers (both are low-paid jobs in Israel), while their husbands work very nice jobs with good salaries. So, they do have something at the end of the month left after daycare and travel costs are deduced, but it isn't that much compared to what their husbands make. Now, for some families this little something might be all that enables them to pay their rent or mortgage, but for some, it's no more than a perk-up they are perfectly capable of doing without. The peace and stability and the gentler rhythm of life that are gained by having a mother at home are worth it, even if it means living simply and reducing costs.

[emmyfair]

Any time I read one of Anna T's posts, this is what is going through my head.

*can't spell

[liltwinstar]

Yup, the money from my job is just a "perk-up" -pays for all that food we don't really need to eat, the health insurance for the medical care we don't really need, the clothes we don't have to wear, etc etc.

I'm all for living simply, but good grief!!!

[lovefromgirl]

Am I the only one who wonders what impact paying your social workers peanuts will have on your society?

I mean, the ones I know ain't exactly rich, but they're doing better than preschool teachers, and the work they do is worth ten CEOs' salaries.

[acheronbeach]

She's such a damned hypocrite.

[Effie]

Some say they must work for the money. Interestingly enough, those are often women who work as preschool teachers or social workers (both are low-paid jobs in Israel), while their husbands work very nice jobs with good salaries. So, they do have something at the end of the month left after daycare and travel costs are deduced, but it isn't that much compared to what their husbands make. Now, for some families this little something might be all that enables them to pay their rent or mortgage, but for some, it's no more than a perk-up they are perfectly capable of doing without. The peace and stability and the gentler rhythm of life that are gained by having a mother at home are worth it, even if it means living simply and reducing costs.

Working is all about money? I don't get that. I chose social work as a profession because I want to work with something that I find to be meaningful. If my goal was to earn a lot, I would have chosen another profession. Staying home and dusting in the corners = not so meaningful.

[Maggie Mae]

So I guess I should just quit my job, fly 3,000 miles to live with my dad, and wait for some guy to marry me? Is that what I'm supposed to do?

Or, could it be that MAYBE just MAYBE I LIKE my job enough that I'm willing to suffer through NINE MONTHS of snow every year, and summers that feel like a warm winter, just to have this job that is better than anything I could ever get when I lived in my home state?

Oh, and BTW Anna T, it's not like I'm the kind of girl that any man has ever wanted to marry. I'm good enough to date, but not good enough to marry. And 99.9% of the time, I'm okay with that. Because I don't want to be under some man's headship.

[acheronbeach]

Working is all about money? I don't get that. I chose social work as a profession because I want to work with something that I find to be meaningful. If my goal was to earn a lot, I would have chosen another profession. Staying home and dusting in the corners = not so meaningful.

She's just overcompensating because she ignored all of her so-called principles and went out to work because she and hubs were broke.

[fundiefan]

Oh no. Anna working doesn't count. That was extenuating circumstances that only their circumstances warranted and only for that specific amount of time. She didn't use her skills to support her family, she meekly tucked her tail between her legs and helped her husband. She didn't bring home the money, do the work or anything else. She gave her husband the space, love, trust and respect he needed to be be validated enough to get a job that would support his family.

Anyone who gets any job under any other circumstances, and dares to NOT hate it, is failing at being a woman.

[YPestis]

Anna T hating on working mothers?

Yawn.

Anna T belittles much of the work of working mothers. She has hinted she finds women who work poor employers anyways, and men superior workers. The one profession that she can't belittle for its uselessness or poor earning potential was medicine, and she belittled it as the "worst profession for a woman" because it requires years of studying and long work hours----hence, those evil docs makes the worst mothers!

Is it mean of me to sometimes wish her husband would suffer another bout of unemployment and Anna is forced to work outside the home just to eat some more crow? It appears her first experience as a working mother, rather than making her sympathetic, only made her more intolerant of other people's lifestyles.

[lilah]

I want to comment and ask if why if her family and her life at home with her children is so damn important to her she has to devote so many arguments to justify it to herself on her blog? Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

[pimpom]

I wonder what her (surely? right!) hard-working single-parent mother makes of all this. And also if that might be the root cause of all this wailing: Mummy wasn't home enough?

[desertvixen]

Oh no. Anna working doesn't count.

That was necessary. And she didn't ENJOY it, she was miserable. And she stopped when she could. /sarcasm

She really irritates me.

[Burris]

Some say they must work for the money. Interestingly enough, those are often women who work as preschool teachers or social workers (both are low-paid jobs in Israel), while their husbands work very nice jobs with good salaries. So, they do have something at the end of the month left after daycare and travel costs are deduced, but it isn't that much compared to what their husbands make.

Wow. Gross generalization is gross.

So Anna T knows about the inner financial workings of each family she looks at, and can conclude with certainty that (a) these women all make far less than their husbands, and (b) these families haven't ordered their lives in such a way that parents may work shifts or have a relative handling child-care.

I guess Anna T thinks math is hard and leaves it up to the guys, or she'd realize that even if a woman earns only 25% the amount her husband makes. and only brings half that income home after childcare and taxes and travel are figured in, that still adds up to several hundred dollars a month that would simply disappear if the woman weren't working.

And that, of course, assumes all these women are working at low-paying jobs (that are nonetheless so fulfilling that those selfish hussies would prefer working to staying home with their kids).

[Hane]

News flash: Here in godless Connecticut, nurses, social workers, and public school teachers make damn good money--particularly if they have advanced degrees. All the women I know with those careers out-earn their husbands, AND provide the family health insurance.

Anna T et al need to get the hell out of the house and shake hands with real life.

[Wolfie]

Hane- generally, working in the public sector is slightly lower pay than with the same credentials as in the private sector. Historically the benefits were better, but it's not so true anymore with all the anti-government worker and anti-union stuff. My union took a pay cut last year and our out of pocket insurance costs keep going up, while the coverage keeps decreasing. I'm not hurting, but I know a lot of people with less education who are making more than me. But, I took this job as more than just a way to earn money.

I suspect that if Anna corners them, they give up and tell her that they need the income to shut her up.

[YPestis]

All the women I know with those careers out-earn their husbands, AND provide the family health insurance.

I think Anna T mentions they get evil gov't health insurance (Israel has one). She hates it because she believes if they didn't pay the extra tax to pay for it, she would get "better" health coverage. I find that funny since her husband works at what appears to be a relatively modest salary and was unemployed for a time. Does she think being part of the working poor in America is so great since people get to pay for their own insurance, esp when unemployed?

I can't say that Israel has a great national health plan but I'm pretty sure if someone of Anna T's economic stature came to live in the States and had to self-pay, she'd have a hard time paying for her multiple pregnancy stays without (evil) gov't aid.

[darkplumaged]

Anna T needs to get a new hobby. How many posts has she made on this topic? She never offers any new insights, so what's the point of bringing it up again and again?

Her blog could be interesting if she refashioned it to be a "Jewish living" or "life in rural Israel" blog, but I guess that wouldn't be as interesting to her fundie followers.

I have really done a 180 on her. I used to be a fan, even when I disagreed with her, but now...?

[Dinorah]

I want to comment and ask if why if her family and her life at home with her children is so damn important to her she has to devote so many arguments to justify it to herself on her blog? Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Exactly. I feel it of many of these bloggers. If you're so convinced your own lifestyle's right, why the need to defend it again and again?

[BlackHawk]

Most women here where I live don't have very ambitious careers, they have jobs. They are secretaries, preschool teachers, school social workers, school psychologists; for many of them, the issues with which they deal at work are similar to what they face at home (whiny toddlers or disobedient teenagers, for example).

You know.. oddly this area bothers me. I am a preschool teacher. I deal with two year olds. Right now I work for myself, but when I am in a class room it's with kids... and it's my career. I have made a career choice that will not make me lots of money, it will not earn me fame and fortune, but it's a career none the less. I have chosen to work with children, day in and day out. Even working for myself, I work with children. And once I have kids, I will be a SAHDad who still runs his own business working with other kids. I know she is talking about women, but seriously, some of us make a career out of something knowing we won't be rich.

My partner makes roughly 7 times what I made in a year. My paycheck, when I received a steady one, payed for my gas and an oil change every 2 months (cause I drive my car A LOT). It doesn't make it any less a career just because I'll never be salary, or never make 6 figures... shit I'd be happy to make 5 figures some years. My first year in child care I made 9,000... for the whole year, working 38 hours a week. It's sucky, it's stupid, but alas, it's my chosen path.

I really hate when people who have no clue what the fuck they are talking about go after daycare/preschool workers. Some of us choose this career.

ETA: The first year I worked in childcare I was written on the books as a "volunteer with minimal pay" so I made under minimum wage, despite being a full time teacher who ran a classroom... the daycare simply couldn't afford another teacher but desperately needed one... it was shady but it worked for everyone involved.