Poll: Why Are You Stay-at-Home Mom (or Dad)?

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Solve an argument for us, would you? If you are a military spouse and you are primarily a stay home parent, we want to know why.

Recently I wrote about the fact that military spouses were twice as likely to be SAHMs than their civilian neighbors.

Our blogger Raleigh wanted to know why. Her guess is that it is the cost of childcare. “To rate full-time childcare (on base), you must have a full time job or full time school--online classes do not count,” Raleigh told me.

Even if she could get childcare for her baby, they would be paying around $1,200 a month on base.

Our managing editor Amy thinks the real reason might be guilt. “You want a career but you think it’s your higher calling to stay home full time with your little ones. After all, they grow-up so fast!”

My professional guess is that the reason more military spouses stay home is because of the military.  Deployments and duty days and PCS moves mean that we are juggling more that our civilian neighbors. Something's gotta give.

Then again, there is the I Like It factor. All three of us work primarily from home while taking care of our kids.  I can't speak for Raleigh and Amy, but I would much rather juggle kids and work from home than try to manage a nanny or babysitter. Besides, there are all those SAHM bonus days of taking off for the beach and the pool with my 11-year-old this summer (and his older sibs for the previous 22 summers!).

We know it will be hard to choose, but please pick your PRIMARY reason in the poll below and then check out the results. And if your situation is more complicated, please tell us all about it in the comments.

Editor's Note:  You can also contribute to the real scientific knowledge about military spouses and employment by taking the MOAA Spouse Employment Survey here.

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