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If you both bring home the bacon, who fries it?
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The Price of Motherhood
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Are SAHMs the next "cheap labor?"
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On Monday night, Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James got in his mother’s grill after she got caught up in a skirmish that resulted from James’ involvement in a breakaway dunk attempt by Boston’s Paul Pierce. In some not so nice words, he told his mom to sit down. The video, which is up on You Tube, clearly shows the fallout from James’ mother’s intimate involvement in his career. Clearly they are close, but when LeBron is on the court, he’s got no time for his mom to coach from the sidelines.
The concept of stage moms isn’t anything new. Even back in 1933 the term was prevalent - it was the title of a popular film - Stage Mother. But currently, our nation’s most famous stage mom has to be Dina Lohan. Lohan has been all over the press in the last year for her support of some of her daughter Lindsay’s most ill-thought out choices. The elder Lohan has been supremely influential in her daughter’s success as has LeBron James’ mother. But how beneficial can these symbotic mom-child relationships be? What happens when your job is to promote your kids’ job?
This article in the Wall Street Journal my friend Kim sent me caught my eye mainly because of its title, “How Stay-at-Home Moms Are Filling an Executive Niche.” Now that my working mom status has changed, I pay close attention to how the media covers stay-at-home moms. Especially when the topic has anything to do with stay-at-home moms re-entering the workforce. In this particular article, the author, Sue Shellenbarger, focuses on a topic of particular interest to me - moms who take on small projects to stay up on current business trends.
Shellenbarger states:
The decision among some highly educated women to stay home with children is sparking a countertrend: The rise of the mommy “SWAT team.” The acronym, for “smart women with available time,” is one mother’s label for all-mom teams assembled quickly through networking and staffing firms to handle crash projects. Employers get lots of voltage, cheap, while the women get a skills update and a taste of the professional challenges they miss.
I get this concept. I too, feel that I’m a highly educated woman who likes to network and handle small, last-minute projects. I try to stay in the mix as often as possible so that I can mingle with adults from time-to-time and keep my mind fresh. I’m pretty sure in four years, an executive won’t care if I can recite the theme song to “Dora the Explorer.”
However, I’m bothered by one of the themes of the article overall - that highly educated stay-at-home moms can be bought for consulting work for “cheap” because the chance to get refreshed on current business trends and dip our toes in professional challenges makes up for the money.
Shellenbarger highlights the “cheap” cost of using SAHMs in corporate work:
The University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School was able to muster an “incredibly talented” team with eight at-home mothers — including a Stanford University Ph.D… The team taught leadership skills to 100 M.B.A. candidates…[and the] training was so successful that enrollment doubled this spring and Kenan-Flagler made it mandatory for leadership training. Cost to the B-school: $21 an hour per woman.
Twenty-one dollars per hour? And one of the women leading the training has her Ph.D? I might as well go get a job at Costco and work a few overtime shifts. I guess my master’s degree isn’t worth as much as I thought if I don’t keep it in practice.
As I was watching Jennifer roll through the questions on Jeopardy! on Saturday, I thought I noticed a trait that I sometimes find myself doing - Not going for the kill. At one point, Jennifer had earned $10,000, the champion had $5,000 and the other guy had maybe $2,000. She hit the Daily Double and risked $2,000. Now that’s a fair amount to wager on a Daily Double when someone’s about four grand behind you, but within four more turns she had landed the second one and was up around $12,000 and the men were far behind her. That’s when I saw it. That nervous smile women get when they are rolling over the competition, especially men, and suddenly realize that “men don’t like losing to women.” Jennifer wagered $2,000 again and easily won it.
If you’re a fan of Jeopardy! you know that they were in the second round. They were early in the second round. Before I knew it, the returning champion was nipping at Jennifer’s heels. In fact the second round ended with Jennifer up only a few HUNDRED dollars. Yes, Mr. Champion had blazed through a few big dollar questions, but I couldn’t help wonder if Jennifer had eased up a bit.
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Welcome to Moms on Issues! As Veronica mentioned, on this new blog, Veronica and I are going to be tackling political and social issues facing working moms today. From moms in the media to caring for our elders and our kids, we’ve got it covered.
We’re thrilled to be a part of the WIM team and hope you enjoy our points of view. We promise to speak our minds so be sure to speak yours as well. Anyway, here goes…
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Whether you’re a mom who works outside of the home or from home or doesn’t work at all, I’m sure at one time or another you’ve found yourself hitting that proverbial brick wall. Being a mom is tiring - even after you get your kid to sleep through the night (and sometimes even achieving that is a challenge). So if someone offered me a pill to feel more energized and focused throughout the day I’d leap at the chance to take it. Wouldn’t you?
I’ve Veronica and I’m a mom with a lot of issues. Every other week I’ll share some of them with you and I hope we have a great discussion. While I will focus my issues around the media’s portrayal of working moms, I won’t limit myself to that either.
My stance is that as a society we are all still adjusting to the idea of working mothers aka women who have small children and work outside the home, either part-time or full-time. Because our society moves at a snail’s pace in reacting to the rapid change that has happened, it confounds a lot of people, especially those in the media, about whether we are selfish or Superwomen. That said, the fact that every mother is a working mother also confounds people. What do you mean that cleaning and nurturing your child is work? That’s what you are built for right? Well, yes…and no.
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