More on How Much a Stay-at-Home Mom is Worth

In How Much Is a Stay-at-Home Mom Worth?, I suggested that a stay-at-home mom's value could be determined by the amount of life insurance she has on herself. But while I was looking around the blogosphere recently, I noticed that others had various takes on the issue. Here's a sampling of what I found:

• My wife definitely deserves a six-figure salary - I sat next to a nice woman on my flight back from California a few weeks ago.  We got to chatting, and she asked what my wife did, and I said that she works at home.  Her reply was: “You know she works harder than you do, right?”  My response: “Absolutely!  No question!”

• How Much is Your Mom Worth? - Claudia Goldin, a professor of economics at Harvard, dismissed the survey as “silly.” “The calculation isn’t for what anyone would pay an individual,” Prof. Goldin said. “Nor is it for exactly what the individual does. It is for what the person claims they are doing during a long day—CEO, psychologist, etc. And what exactly is the salary for the CEO of a business that shows no profits and sells no services or goods? I think it is probably zero…”

• Honoring Mothers - Typical of us, isn’t it—trying to quantify the physical value of a role that is better measured spiritually?

• Mom's Salary - I was watching the morning news with my husband and heard that my stay at home status is worth a lot of money.  I couldn't believe my ears.  Finally some researchers decided to look into how much a stay at home mom is worth.  I was very surprised when I saw how much my paycheck should be for the year. Oh well, I can dream.  I still love what I do with or without pay.

• How Much Is a Stay at Home Mom Worth? - My wife and I had our annual argument last night about who has the harder job. I am a high pressure lawyer and she is a stay at home mom. I thought I would win hands down. She came armed with some statistics, however.

So, anyone else want to jump in with a comment?

Comments

[Big Cajun Man]

Coincidently I am running a "mock tax return" for Canadian Taxes for a family comparing what happens if the Father and Mother both work or only 1 spouse works and how the Canadian Tax system penalizes the single income family. Mother's work is worth a lot of money, and I don't want to do my wife's job!

--C8j

[micro]

I'm not sure why everyone obsesses about it so much. Is a dollar figure the ultimate expression of worth in our culture? An actuary may put the value of a life at $1,000,000--so what? Would any sane, rational person offer to kill a family member for $1G? No matter what my mom's (or my wife's) skills, sacrifices, and hard work are worth in the market place, I'm glad they chose to do pro bono work in my life.

[anon]

There are plenty of women who work full or part time AND do the mom stuff....so I guess I really don't get it. Obviously It's just a different way of handling a workload. Some people juggle better than others.

[Rick]

I don't think we can quantify everything. It is impossible. How much money is spending time with your kids worth? How much money is going to church worth? How much money is being able to enjoy the beautiful scenery in nature worth?

You just can't quantify these kinds of things. Just love your family. And if your wife can stay at home, know that spending time with your kids is more important than anything money can ever buy.