Moderately Confused by Jeff Stahler for March 12, 2024

Amazing how it’s become impossible to live on one income and be a 2-parent family! Hard on kids! We made it, and my wife was a (surrogate) block mother. We raised a lot of great kids in the neighborhood!

Outside Interests ~ ~ is she referring to interests outside of marriage?

There are libraries and all kinds of self-help for hobbies or home businesses online. But I understand her frustrations, because none of those include in-person meetings with and getting to know others.

Humans are a ‘gathering’ species. We like to be physically in the presence of and personally connected with others to just exchange views and chat. When the morning coffee klatches faded, life became very humdrum for many. Same for the once honored ‘morning break’ rooms at many firms. A loss not in any way balanced by the use of the ubiquitous cell phone.

I hear women complain a lot about the discrepancies in salaries between men and women. It’s real. There are some of the caveats that can be tossed at the issue such as women interrupting their careers to raise their children or in the case of my wife: moving every time I got reassigned. However, even these wrinkles do not account for all the difference.

This is the reality in the adult word. But if we go back to high school, it’s the girls who have the economic advantage. Babysitting is a female dominated profession. Hardly anyone would hire a boy to do the job and to be frank, there’s enough stigma associated with the job as being “woman’s work” that boys are not inclined to pursue it.

However, a girl can make more in one night of babysitting than a guy can working at minimum wage stocking shelves for a week at the supermarket.

..that’s what that slacker husband of yours is for..

Then you certainly cannot afford back therapy for a child with an overloaded backpack.

That’s what public schools are for.