Comments on: Advice from the top: Marry a stay-at-home spouse or buy the equivalent.

By: Ambivalent Feminism « Double Drudgery

Ambivalent Feminism « Double Drudgery — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:35:58 +0000

[...] marry a stay-at-home husband, which usually proves to be a futile venture, or successful enough to hire a SAHM . Or unless they choose not to have children at [...]

By: Mariella

Mariella — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:51:16 +0000

Exactly!!!

By: AA

AA — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:10:41 +0000

I love this post. I have no family; no kids, no husband, and I still hire as much help as I can afford. Without it there is no way I could be competitive at work.

By: jj

jj — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:27:43 +0000

Good for you on hiring a house manager. No one can do it all.

As for focusing on career, there's no need to apologize. All those smug SAHM have a hard-working husband who misses out on their kids' live to support HER and the kids. Someone has got to earn a living and that person should be proud of doing so. Earning a living requires intelligence, education, savvy, maturity and a host of other valuable skills.

By: Mo

Mo — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:45:01 +0000

My middle-class family has always had multiple help and, at one point, we had a competent chef, nanny, maid and full-time gardener.

But, oh, we live in a developing country so their combined salaries came to less than a tenth your house manager's. Want cheap help? Move to Kenya. ;)

By: The Family Way « Kyle Hepp

The Family Way « Kyle Hepp — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:48:58 +0000

[...] part than on a man's part. In fact, when I started googling the topic, I found a fascinating post by a professional blogger about [...]

By: Emm

Emm — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:45:48 +0000

Kudos. For knowing what you need, for obtaining it for the good of your family, and for writing about it honestly. And, from a full-time-busy SAHM with a clueless husband, thanks for the acknowledgement of what it takes to run a household and nurture a family — that is, if you're intent on doing it WELL. Love your blog – keep writing.

By: Lasivian

Lasivian — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:36:39 +0000

Perhaps if you started working to live instead of living to work you wouldn't need to hire people to take care of your life outside of the office?

I'm sure your gravestone will not say "I wish I had spent more time at the office".

By: Another Reason to Avoid Doing Housework « But I’m Not a Housewife!

Another Reason to Avoid Doing Housework « But I’m Not a Housewife! — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:00:30 +0000

[...] as Caitlin Flanagan, and Penelope Trunk have – or have had – nannies, cleaning services, and "House Managers." (And by the way, when Penelope Trunk announced that she hired a House Manager, her reader response [...]

By: JJ Wiggins

JJ Wiggins — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:58:28 +0000

Hello Penelope, I'm a little late on this conversation, having just discovered your blog- but so far I've found it insightful and referenced it in a couple of blog postings I did today. While I haven't read enough of your blog to offer an opinion on some of the other comments to this post, I can say one thing: today's modern women need to realize they can't have it all. Something's gotta give. I wrote about this in my 2008 and 2007 mother's day posts "Mothers Day for the SuperMom, parts 1 and 2) and have come to the conclusion that we each have to decide what path works best for our family. My plan was always to stop working when I started a family, but it didn't work out that way. And our family is doing just fine. I suspect yours is too... After all, that means hiring extra help (less time shopping for the kids means more time playing with them). If you, or anyone else, would like to read my supermom posts, here you go: Enjoy...