TheWRITEaddiction.com

In case you’re reading this first thing morning, I want to put you in a good mood.

Okay, so now that you’ve gotten your feel good moment of the day, my rant can commence.

Yesterday, I was listening to one of my regular podcast when my ears were assaulted.  The  show is a popular financial advice program, where callers ask the host questions and he advises them based on what he’d do not same situation.

On this particular call, the host asked the caller about his household income.  The caller responded with his personal income.  The host naturally asked about his wife.  The caller sounded miffed.  “We believe in the Bible, she stays at home with the kids.”

My blood was boiling.  As both a working mother, and a believer of the Bible I was flabbergasted.  Let me start off by saying that I generally know what I am going to get when I listen to this show.  The host is very Republican, and very southern. He has called himself both a redneck and a hillbilly on air.  So there is no secret of what kind of advice he’s giving.

But I was caught off guard by this caller.  Here he was talking about how badly in debt he was, but then had the nerve to be offended at the thought of his wife working.

I support a woman’s right to choose to stay home, or go to work. Any woman who chooses to spend her day pouring herself into her children has my full respect.   But so does the single mom with two jobs.

My alarm goes off every morning at 4:30 so that I can be at work at 6:30 and leave by 3:00.  Then I drive straight to my children’s elementary school so I can be the first face they see when they come running out those doors. (Hubby goes to work later so he can drop them off at those doors every morning.). I would love to stay in bed past sunrise, but for the sake of my babies, I’m up before the crack of dawn.  I make daily sacrifices for my children.  It is my duty. It is my honor.  Some days it is even my pleasure.

For this jerk to imply that by working, I’m forsaking both my Christian and motherly duties is offensive, at best.  At its worst, it is downright ignorant and oppressive.  Some families have the option of having one parent stay home…and it’s not always the mom.  Some families decide that both parents work.  Some families only consist of a single parent with children,.  But all families get to make that choice.   The question is a matter of finances, and not faith.  Jesus makes clear that you should not confuse the two.

I stopped listening to the podcast before the guy finished his question.  The reason i listen to that particular show is to motivate me to do better with my own finances, to hear how people with similar circumstances are overcoming financial obstacles.  i hear myself in their stories of terror and triumph. But there was no motivation from this guy.  Just judgment.  Wonder what his Bible says about that?

Mama Radford