28 January 2011

Domesticity

A few articles today have me thinking about domestic life in Canada. First is this article on cbc.ca. Don't read the comments. It's called My Crazy Crush on Sarah Palin. Before you start screaming, it's not about her politics. It's about her domestic life, how she can go out on her outdoor show, cook from scratch for 7, etc. The writer watches her in awe, but also with no desire to ever be like her. Rather like watching the Kardashians, I imagine.

Then there are these two articles, about how the Harper government has been really terrible for women, both here and abroad.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Harper+government+done+little+women/4182113/story.html

http://pushedleft.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-do-you-mean-stephen-harper-has.html

I was kinda surprised that 1 in 4 mothers are stay-at-home moms. I don't think that is true of where I live. I've only met a few of them myself. And to a person, they've annoyed the ever-livin' hell out of me. Competimoms who like to compare the achievements of their kids to yours (with theirs always being better, of course), or worse, homeschooling parents who just LOVE to gloat about how far ahead their kids are. You are simply doing it wrong. I had one tell me how horrible I was for sending Snap back to school after 3 years of homeschooling. If I did things like she did, I'd have no trouble! "Everything you do can be a learning experience!" I almost punched her and said, "Learning experience!"

Life isn't easy at home, that's for sure. There's all the domestic work (ugh), there's the non-stop nature of the job - it's 24/7. There's no break from the snotty noses and snotty voices. There's no intellectual development time. There's no pay. Except of course, my beer and chips money. That's $200/mo I get for having two kids under 6. I'd rather have childcare so I could work for money at a job I'm good at. Don't get me wrong, I'm a good Mom. I just think I'd be better if I could get a break the odd time. And I do see working as a break. It's a break from Parenting. It's a break from the house. It's a break. It's not a rest, mind you. I realize that working moms have it hard too. That going from one stress to another isn't all fun and games. Especially for the ones that work hard labour jobs and/or work long hours. I can't even fathom their exhaustion.

But if I did go back to work, I'd have another set of problems. A country that doesn't value my work as much as men's work, a PM who made sure his government took out references to equality, and lower pay than the men around me. At this point, I've been out of the workforce longer than I was in it. I don't have a hope of getting paid reasonably. Mr. FCS keeps talking about how much money we'll have when the kids go to school and I can work full time. He has no idea that I don't have a hope of finding a job like I had before.

So... I guess I better get good at cleaning my house. I think I'm going to be here for a while.