Since you quoted my post, I'll respond by saying I agree with you. I hope you got that from my post. Perhaps you were just using my post to elaborate more on the premise. When my husband and I got married everything we purchased, including our house, was based on one income. We could have had so much more if i had continued to work but material things were not that important to us. It was more important that I was able to stay home to raise my son. The only reason i even worked part-time was because my profession is such that an extended leave would have prevented going back to the work force if the need arose to do so. I made sure that most of my working hours were when my husband was at home. I did enjoy doing all the things you mentioned in your "looking back" paragraph and the only thing I regret is that it went by too fast. It was the most important part of my life thus far.

Of course, there are families that struggle financially and both parents must work. This was true even for my own parents back in the 50's. The way they dealt with it back then was that my dad worked a day shift job and my mom worked evenings. It wasn't easy but they made it work. We were never left alone or with someone else unless it was family, and my mother had dinner on the table every night for us before she left for work. They worked hard both at their jobs and at home. I guess that's how my siblings and I developed such a good work ethic. The problem with many young people today is that they want it all and do not want to sacrifice to put their kids first. They think they are putting them first by being able to buy them everything they want and keeping up with the Joneses. They also often lack the support system. Families are far away and neighbors are not so close knit.

Anyway, we are not in disagreement. The world is a mess and it started with the loss of traditional family values as you said.