I'm really surprised by all the positivity! In my mind, what it comes to is this: these folks were barely breaking even & just squeaking by on the generosity of their friends, family, & community. During this period of barely making ends meet, they decided to add more expenses. In every other case study where people aren't saving, the advice is usually decrease expenses or earn more money. If I posted a thread about how I was spending all my income, didn't have a safety net, didn't have insurance, & was considering going on a vacation to Bali, I would get ridiculous amounts of incredulous comments.
The only difference I'm seeing is that some people place more value on children or being a stay at home parent, which somehow gets The Prudent Homemaker a pass for being financially reckless. They can afford their children in the absolute, bare-minimum sense of the word, but considering this is the MMM forums, I'm shocked that there's so much approval. I mean, we have threads where people are installing bidets & being glad about saving toilet paper, MMM showers 2-3 times a week & saves water, folks who spend tons of time couponing to get free supplies! Then we have the Prudent Homemaker who has kind of "retired" to take care of her kids with no safety net beyond a year's worth of canned food.
Lastly, why is there so little discussion of the husband? Couldn't he step up & be the primary caregiver while she got a job? Her stepping out of the home to work doesn't mean that those poor children will be abandoned to the evil influence of outside caretakers if Dad stepped up at home.