Most people look at moms as all we do is watch our kids on a day to day basis. Well its really not just watching our kids because you have to. It is so much more than that. Being a parent is the same as having a full time job that you don't get paid for. There is a ton of responsibility in making sure all their needs are met. One of the most important responsibilities is teaching them right from wrong. In my life my child is my life and my job that I don't get paid for. I cook and clean for her everyday. I am doing things almost the same as I always have, the only thing that changes is my entire day and my daughter growing. There is a lot of jobs out in the world and one is daycare. Well instead of paying others to watch, clean, feed and protect our children, we should be the ones getting paid to stay at home with our kids and receive a salary for raising the next generation.
I conducted some interviews to see what other single parents thought about parents getting paid to be a stay at home parent. I asked a young lady who is a parent too. She has a little girl that is almost two years old and she thinks that yes, stay at home parents should receive a salary for the reason that it is not only being a parent and wanting to raise your children the way you want. It is a task that affects an entire generation and that is hard work. It is a job . At one point this young mother did work two jobs and raised her child as a single mom . She said it was hard to go to work and come home ,watch her child and then go to her other job . She was always on the go, wondering to herself how to be there for her little girl more than she was at the time. She felt stuck because she had to provide clothes and food for her and her baby as well as a roof over their heads . She barely had enough money to get by every month, with paying for all the bills and things that they needed. By the time she finished paying for daycare they had no extra money for all the extra things they wanted in their life.
That is not all she thought about. Many people do not understand how hard it is for a single mom to raise a family and be out in the working community at the same time. She believes that parents should receive a salary because it benefits everyone in the community to focus on their own children instead of paying someone else to take care of them for you. Every person has to work in this society so that they have a roof to live under and food in there stomaches. Raising children should be classified as a job too (Kadrmas).
I interviewed a single father of four children. He said he did not believe that a stay at home parent should receive a monthly salary because about eighteen years ago he had to put his children in daycare so that he could work three jobs in order for his children to get all that they needed. He said that when you choose to become a parent you have to make sacrifices for your family. Living in California eighteen years ago was a struggle for him and his children, he barely got to see and interact with them (Odekirk).
There is a lot of research available that shows that staying home with your child benefits our entire society. According to a book titled Being There: The Benefits of a Stay-At-Home Parent, written by Robert M. Fox there are four major points that supports his argument. The first point is that importance of attachment theory. Attachment theory explains how we become secure as children first and then later as adults. A baby attaches itself to the person who takes care of it the most. It is from that person that the baby can grow up to be a confident, good person (Fox, pg. 37).
The second point that Fox explains is that parents involvement in raising their child plays a very important part in the cognitive, emotional, and social development of their children (Fox, pg. 72).
Thirdly, Fox argues that often times parents have to take their child to a variety of care givers. This causes the child to be insecure and increases the risk for developmental problems that can later show up in society. For example:
Inability to obey laws
Inability to successfully learn from teachers
Inability to resist temptations of drug and alcohol abuse
Increased chance of getting a serious mental disorder
The fourth and final point that Fox makes is that all parents, in spite of their income can make choices to be a stay at home parent (Fox, pg.116).
Which brings me back to my main point. If you are a single parent, and you want to stay home with your child, so that you can teach them right from wrong and how to be a contributing member of our society, you should get paid for it, because it is an important job.