it's ridiculous to try to equate such important work with an exact monetary value by relating it to other paid work, which it really doesn't fit....Attaching nonsense monetary value to it does not make it worth more.
You have a point. I never thought about it in monetary terms until I read the very un-mustachian Penelope Trunk's hilarious rant "Buying a Spouse" http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2008/04/10/advice-from-the-top-marry-a-stay-at-home-spouse-or-buy-the-equivalent/
"I want you to know what it’s really like to be a woman competing with the men who have stay-at-home wives: Expensive. There are jokes about the hyperbole of the annual study that says that housewives are worth six-figures. I think it is not hyperbole. Those men are getting not just a house manager, but someone who adores his kids, is there all the time, and someone who is willing to have some sort of regular sex life. For all that, the estimate of $100,000 a year seems very low."
For some, like P.Trunk, placing numbers on a job is helpful.
Wow, I read the P. trunk article you linked and to me it wasn't funny, it was scary. A life where one really is that over-committed and that much of a workaholic sounds horrible to me. Perhaps in a case where someone makes so very much money in exchange for having such a fucked up work-life balance (IMHO, of course), a SAH really could be "worth" $100,000. However, I would never choose such a life.
But, in the life I have chosen I *do* have a SAH spouse. But, we also have a life where I can also be around a ton, and helpout a ton at home, so we both have great balanced lives. So, are my home contributions also worth $100k? If so, how are we both going to wind up getting paid what we so clearly deserve for all of our hard work at home?
