siewlng
Hehe, have to disagree abt the 'not everyone can afford to be SAHM' smt.
Everyone can afford to be a SAHM. It just depends on the quality of life you want. There are pp who can survive on a single income ($2k-$3k) with a SAHM and a couple of kids. It really depends on what you want. If you want a long overseas holiday, a big car, a big house, then of course not everyone can be SAHM. But if you can lower expectations, live with less, then anyone can be a SAHM. With prudent spending, an average household with single income should still be able to afford a small car, insurance policies and a short holiday.
True that even SAHM may be spending quantity time and not quality time. I'm guilty of that sometimes. But this can become an excuse for FTWM not to spend time with the kids, so have to be very careful abt this. My hb's colleague hardly spends time with his children. They go on holidays without them, dun even have dinner with the kids. They are very busy pp and they can be working past midnight every night. Is that quality time spent with the kids? Quality time also need quantity time. I dun think the once a month quality time is considered good time spent on their kids and should be considered sufficient. Of course, not everyone is like that. They're probably the extreme case.
I think so long as the children are happy, you are happy then it's perfectly fine how you wanna lead your life. Don't have to be bothered by what others say, but at the same time, we've to ask ourselves this question, have we done our part in raising the kids other than fulfilling their financial needs? There's no room for regrets. The kids grow up so fast, so we've to make decisions without having any regrets. We've to remember not to neglect their emotional needs. The bond is built now, so that in their teenage years, they will come to you if they've a prob.