Smarty Pants: Is Staying Home Foolish in a Recession?

note: smarty pants posts are my responses and reflections on current events, and the questions they stir up.

Fair Questions:
Will the stay-at-home lifestyle become an inevitable casualty of the recession? This is the question I asked myself when I read a recent article in Time Magazine about women scrambling to get back into the workforce after leaving it to raise children.

It is a fair question. Other fair questions include: is it foolish to be home right now? should women try to get jobs before it gets too late? is staying home during a recession a financially irresponsible choice?

The answers to those questions, of course, are relative. What might be responsible for one person would be unwise for another. Nevertheless, I think that there are some themes and trends worth pondering about stay-at-home living and the current recession:

Worth Considering...
* Fear influences our perspective and decisions. For many of us, this recession is scary. The notion that the “window is closing” for employment might cause some of us to pursue a conventional job even when we don’t want or need one, usually for fear that someday we might.
* Furthermore, staying home--a choice that on its own incites cultural resistance--becomes even harder when the focus on dollars and cents is intensified. The day-to-day activities that don’t generate income, or generate small income, are more tempting to eschew in favor of traditional work and payment.

But:
* There are ways that you can be proactive about work while staying home. Many women manage to launch small companies from their homes that provide either living or supplemental incomes for their families. Furthermore, women staying home can prepare themselves to enter the workforce if needed by taking steps to heighten their employability now. Read below under “previous posts” for more information.
* Also, working and income are not the only safeguards during this recession; home management helps too. Strong community ties, disciplined budgeting, creative resourcefulness, and the like can all fortify a family against the throngs of recession. Paychecks are not the only solution.

A Defense
Certainly I would never council someone to stay home if they weren’t making ends meet at the end of the month. But I do think that home-based lifestyles are particularly vulnerable during recessions, and I find myself wanting to defend them. Not just because I work from home, but also because I think they provide tangible (dare I say quantifiable?) value.

Thoughts?
What are your thoughts? Are you staying home and feeling heightened pressure to hit the pavement? Are you currently searching for work? What do you think about stay-at-home living during a recession? Post your comments here.

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Previous Related Posts:
Smarty Pants: Jobs vs. Livelihoods
Overcoming Objections
Building a Resume that Rocks
My Recession-Proof Plan for the Work-from-Home Life

RX: A Quick Recharge

It is common for bloggers when writing a personal blog to wrestle with the question, "how much do I share?"  "Where is the line between personal and private?"  And so I find myself asking that question this morning.

The question comes up because I need a brief respite, and plan to take one this week.  No posting.  No working.  No updates.  Now normally I'd have material saved up for a week like this, but my life isn't exactly following "normal" lately.  

And since some of you readers check in frequently, I didn't want you to wonder "what happened to her?  Did she fall off a cliff?  Did she suddenly abandon her blog for greener pastures?  Did she catch the plague from the prairie dog colony next to her neighborhood? (a possibility, I assure you.)  

No, none of those things.  (And here comes the line between private and personal).  The truth is that I'm dealing with the emotional roller coaster of trying to start a family (a subject I have posted about during this recent Nesting series--see the links below to read more), and need a little holiday.  You know--a chance to recharge my battery a bit.

Incidentally, the opportunity to recharge for a spell is one of the benefits of my "lifestyle makeover" that I've come to value greatly.  Opting out of the traditional career track and opting in to a stay-at-home life has had many challenges, many of which I address on a regular basis in this space.  But it also provides some benefits.  Flexibility and cushion for dealing with life's unexpected obstacles is one such amiable quality.  

And so I leave you all for a few days.  I'll return, I'm sure, refreshed, and probably armed with a bunch of knitting projects I've finished and a slew of new ideas and thoughts on Nesting and life at home.  Until then...

PS:  I only wish I was on the beach.  Walking among prairie dogs will be more like it...

Previous Related posts:

The Personal Side of Nesting

Help!  I Need a Lifestyle Makeover

Avoiding the Subject

What does micro-business have to do with being home?

Note: New to Deviantly Domesticated?  Thanks for visiting!  We are right in the middle of a series on micro-business and why it could be a great fit for women.  Scroll below to read previous posts, or jump right in with today's discussion!

After reading several days worth of posts on micro-business, you might be asking yourself "what does this have to do with being domesticated?  Isn't this blog supposed to be about being a housewife or stay-at-home mom?"  It's a fair question indeed.  Allow me to respond...

Women who stay home are often expected by society to be concerned with two primary things: raising children and caring for the home.  The choice to be home-based is often perceived as a choice against work and earning money.  I would like to change this perception, because I think that most of use who choose to stay home would either like or need a little industry in our lives.  And micro-business, I think, could provide that industry.

The truth is that rather than disqualify us from the economy, being at home means that we have an opportunity to nurture viable economic work for our own benefit, and fitting with our own lifestyle.  Micro-business, which can be based out of the home, relational, flexible, and compatible with children, can give us a much needed outlet apart from our roles as mothers and wives,  and provide us with our own income and financial sense of accomplishment.

Being at home also means that we have the opportunity to support an alternative to the traditional economy--an opportunity even to lead in it.  On the surface we may not look like economic leaders, but an army of micro-businesses that support the community can have a great impact.  

I'm most likely preaching to the choir.  More and more I hear accounts of women who are living a home-based lifestyle and are finding innovative and creative ways to earn some income using their skills and interests.  These women are engaging the marketplace while still raising kids, investing in the community, and building their marriages.  The more we hear their testimonies, and the more we encourage each other to be leaders in a fruitful alternative economy, the more others will see our leadership and be encouraged to follow.

Food Waste

I was convicted this morning when I encountered an article on food waste in the New York Times.  Since two of the qualities that I admire most about the housewife tradition is frugality and being mindful of waste, I had to pay attention to the reality of how much food we Americans (and Europeans) throw away.  

I confess that I am guilty of tossing food.  I do a good job of planning weekly menus and sticking to my shopping list when I'm at the grocery store, preventing me from buying too much extra food we won't eat.  But still, I manage to toss leftovers that don't get eaten and have been sitting in the fridge for days.  Every time I hit the garbage disposal switch, I do think about the global food shortage and how it seems unjust for my sink to be eating better than many people around the world.

Of course there are things I can do to cut my waste, like composting, for instance.  But wasted food stretches beyond my garbage disposal.  The article in the Times talks about grocery stores and restaurants tossing perfectly good fare, and the gleaning of fields on an even larger scale.  

Needless to say, my interest is piqued and I am making a commitment to learn more about food waste.  To start, I'm going to check out one blog, Wasted Food, and read some of the author's posts on ways to eliminate waste.  I invite you to do the same.

One final note: the issue of food waste is exactly the kind of social issue that I think women who choose to stay at home are particularly equipped to tackle.  We can exercise more control over the resources in our home than many, mainly because we are home more, and we also have more time to devote to our communities (time to, say, become food rescuers).  Please feel free to share your thoughts on conserving resources, food or otherwise, by emailing me at shillberry@comcast.net.