Anyone who has ever been a stay-at-home parent knows that it actually is a lot of work involved.
More, in fact, that people actually think.
I mean; we are talking cooking and cleaning and planning and chauffeuring around and all the other things that come with raising a family.
And according to a new survey by UK insurers Royal London, all the work carried out by a stay-at-home parent is actually worth a salary of almost €50,000.
Yep, that’s right.
A whopping €50,000. However – the survey also found that eight-in-ten people valued the work at less than €28,000 per year. Surprised? If you are a stay-at-home parent, probably not.
However, some people are now calling for stay-at-home parents to be paid by the State for the work they do raising their children.
Should the State pay stay-at-home parents?
Earlier this week, parenting expert Laura Erskine was a guest on Newstalk Breakfast and spoke about how the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown has really opened up many people’s eyes to the work carried out by stay-at-home parents on a daily basis.
“I think we all value the work carried out by stay at home parents now more than ever,” Erskine said.
“I know it was quite the challenge and continues to be the challenge for those of us who are working from home and it really highlights the need for parents who stay at home and choose to stay at home to be remunerated in some way, supported financially in some way, by the State for that valuable role that they are taking in providing that primary childcare role for their children.
“I suppose many of your listeners will be saying why should the State pay for parents to stay at home? That is a choice.
“Well it is not always a choice. Sometimes you are forced out of the labour market because of the prohibitive costs of childcare and, in fact, you are staying at home to provide that childcare service.”
Erskine said more parents would choose to stay at home if there were proper State supports on offer.
“I think choice is the key thing here,” she said.
“There is a false framing of paid labour as being liberating, particularly for women who would be traditionally the primary carer, but actually it is choice that is liberating. At the moment many people are forced to stay at home because of the prohibitive costs of childcare, certainly in the early years.”
“But I think we need to recognise that actually, as a stay at home parent, it is not just the early years that are most valuable in terms of the role they play in their children’s development.
“We need to look at how children today are suffering more in terms of mental anguish and anxiety; how they have a much-reduced resilience to previous years and how, as parents we can influence that and improve that.”
What do YOU think? Do you agree that stay-at-home parents should be paid for the work they do? Would you consider staying home with your children if you got paid to do so?
