Can a woman weigh in?
My husband would prefer that I stay home or only work part-time when we have children. His mother was "sort of" a SAHM (she did some substitute teaching, so that even if she were called in, she would be home around the same time he got home from school) and he feels it was beneficial to him. He says, "You can't pay anyone any amount of money to raise your children the way you would want them to be raised - you have to do it yourself."
I have always wanted a career. I did not go through five years of college and grad school and earn two degrees to sit at home and change diapers all day and use my keen intellect to figure out the next plot twist on "Barney". If I tried, I'd be a basket case inside of a week.
I've always made it abundantly clear to my husband and his family that I intend to keep working. My husband supports my decision, if only because he knows that if he tries to make me stay home, we are never having children at all
No offense to any SAHM's or future SAHM's (or SAHD's for that matter
) - but I feel very strongly that I myself could not be one and that I shouldn't be forced to stay home or made to feel guilty because I don't, simply because I am female.