Why I can't Stop Reading Mormon Mommy Blogs.

[Art Vandelay]

I prefer your wife's kind of questioning to the fifty times I heard, "So how many kids do you have?" when first we moved into our new ward.

Attend Goat's ward, I'm sure the first question is, "real or fake?"

[Mrs. Funk]

I am now officially searching for my eyeballs on the floor.

I was mostly joking. However, the comment that educated women are more likely to be homely is hilarious. I'm sorry if the direction I think I may have led the thread bored you.

[Moliere]

This might not be the best thread for this story, but who cares right?

My wife has a friend that graduated from BYU with a bachelors degree and subsequently moved to Idaho so her husband could finish his schooling at BSU. While at school he worked two or three jobs to support their family (they had no kids so him and his wife were the family). She stayed at home, at his request, and was a homemaker and has been ever since. I find this story both interesting and sad that some people (mind you very few) are so rigorous about the defined male/female roles in the church that they go to extreme lengths to stay within those bounds.

[FMCoug]

This might not be the best thread for this story, but who cares right?

My wife has a friend that graduated from BYU with a bachelors degree and subsequently moved to Idaho so her husband could finish his schooling at BSU. While at school he worked two or three jobs to support their family (they had no kids so him and his wife were the family). She stayed at home, at his request, and was a homemaker and has been ever since. I find this story both interesting and sad that some people (mind you very few) are so rigorous about the defined male/female roles in the church that they go to extreme lengths to stay within those bounds.

These are the ones I can't wrap my head around no matter how hard I try. The no-kids Stay at home Wife. Really? Particularly because this tends to be at a time when the husband is not exactly raking in the dough. I don't get it. Wouldn't she be absolutely bored out of her skull?

I also think this is a great illustration of the Mormons out there who are so hard-wired that they literally cannot think for themselves or apply rational though to a situation.

There is a reason it is called counsel.

[Tone Loc]

I was mostly joking. However, the comment that educated women are more likely to be homely is hilarious. I'm sorry if the direction I think I may have led the thread bored you.

Sorry, just being honest!

[TheBYUGuy]

While I dont mean to say all educated women are homely, I do believe that there is some inverse relationship to how hot a woman is and the amount of education she has. I say this in general. The more attractive women typically get far more attention and married proposals earlier in life which usually leads to marraige and children, and they have to put their formal education aside.

I am sure everyone here is either an exception to this or married to an exception.

So which did you get? Smart or good-looking? Or just a little of both, which is to say neither?

[U-Ute]

Interesting read, but I don't think it is necessarily a Mormon thing. I think that, as a culture, we're finding out that the two working parent household is not the best thing for children. So, with the emphasis that the Mormon religion puts on families, I think you find stay at home moms more prevalent in the Mormon crowd.

For example, my wife has a bachelor's degree (from a fine PAC-12 institution I must add), stays at home with our children, and she runs a blog just like the other ones referenced in the link. She throws themed birthday parties for our kids, always seems to have activities for them to do, and at takes lots, and I do mean LOTS of photographs (my current backup has 156,771 images, taking up 167GB), a very small percentage of which make the blog.

The difference is that she's not a member and hasn't ever really been one. We do it because it is the best thing for our kids. The blog is her way of sharing with our friends and families (and me, since I'm at work) what is going on in our house, and gives her a distraction from the kids when they are driving her crazy. Heheh..

So yeah, I think we're at an interesting cross roads as a culture. Everything I've read says that in the last 10 years, there more and more families that are keeping one parent at home. Obviously the biggest obstacle to that is financial.

[TheBYUGuy]

The difference is that she's not a member and hasn't ever really been one.

Does this mean your wife was slightly a member at some point?

[The_Tick]

Sorry, just being honest!

Far from being honest. And it is slightly offensive, and I am a dude.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

This article is brought to us by the Onion?

[Mormon Red Death]

These are the ones I can't wrap my head around no matter how hard I try. The no-kids Stay at home Wife. Really? Particularly because this tends to be at a time when the husband is not exactly raking in the dough. I don't get it. Wouldn't she be absolutely bored out of her skull?

I also think this is a great illustration of the Mormons out there who are so hard-wired that they literally cannot think for themselves or apply rational though to a situation.

There is a reason it is called counsel.

Its more likely the wife is just lazy.

[Pheidippides]

Sorry, just being honest!

Also, an incorrect, poorly traveled misogynist. My experience only matches up with what you are saying in the event that "hot" = "prostitute". I will agree that prostitutes, on the whole, have fewer degrees than non-prostitutes.

[FMCoug]

Its more likely the wife is just lazy.

I'm sure that's true in some cases. But I have known people like this. And the story related above made it sound like they really though they were following counsel.

Another great example? The people who think using vending machines or shopping online on Sunday's is breaking the Sabbath.

[Paperback Writer]

So yeah, I think we're at an interesting cross roads as a culture. Everything I've read says that in the last 10 years, there more and more families that are keeping one parent at home. Obviously the biggest obstacle to that is financial.

That [financial] and the desires and abilities of the mother. Perhaps I'm reading different things, but I don't think it's as much of a slam dunk as you make it. Are kids better off with a stay-at-home mother who doesn't want to be there? Or one who realizes that patience and nurturing are not their strongest characteristics? When others ask this question to my wife her response is always mothers will either work because of economic necessity or personal fulfillment. If they don't find their job enjoyable or fulfilling and can afford to quit - they will because it's not worth it. If their husband doesn't agree she will make his life miserable until "he sees the light". If the mother finds "motherhood" unfulfilling and miserable then she will find a job that's less so and tell her husband he was right all along about her working.

There are great daycare and pre-school options out there to help working mothers. In my area, some affluent LDS families with a stay-at-home mother actually enrolled their children in our pre-school when they saw the benefits with our children. My wife admits that the mother who cared for our children before they were old enough to attend pre-school was a much better mother than she could have ever been.

[Moliere]

Its more likely the wife is just lazy.

In some instances that might be the case, but in the one I mentioned above it is not the case at all. MJ knows the person from childhood and she is not lazy. We were both perplexed when we found out she was a stay-at-home-wife (not mom since there were no kids) and her husband was going to school full time and working several jobs.

And yes, she was bored.