Is This The Greatest Idea For An Idaho Law Ever?
One of the amazing components of working in this field is how many people we encounter in various ways. Sometimes, it’s out at a live broadcast while other times it’s through our social media. In today’s case, however, an interesting concept was presented to me via the Mix 106 app by a woman who calls herself Cara and lives in Meridian.
In her message to Mix 106, Cara began her story by sharing that she gave up her full-time job to settle down with her husband and have kids. After that, she voices her frustrations with having to ask her husband for money to do things being that he is the only one who works. Here’s where it gets interesting – Cara indicated that it would be nice if there was some sort of rule (or law) that provided stay-at-home spouses with a percentage of the “working spouse’s” paycheck.
While Cara presents an interesting point, I feel like this could be a slippery slope. Do stay-at-home spouses work their butts off? Absolutely – but would it make financial sense for the family to deduct a set percentage of money from the working spouse’s paycheck? My thing is – the money should all go to the same place and for Cara to imply she’s not “compensated”, in my opinion at least, is a bit snide toward her working spouse. There’s no doubt in my mind, as someone who is also the sole provider for his spouse, that his intentions to make his wife feel valued are all there, and for all I’ve gathered, Cara and her family are taken care of. Their bills are paid, the option to spend money as she sees fit is there, and more importantly, she and the kids are all healthy.
So, if she can spend what she wants, when she wants, and still have everything provided to her and the family… why should there be a set percentage of what she gets? Isn’t it true that when you get married, “what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine”?
Maybe I am being tone-deaf or insensitive to the situation but I honestly feel like this boils down to communication. Do stay-at-home spouses work their butts off day in, day out? Absolutely. Are stay-at-home spouses celebrated enough? Probably not!
But, should there be a law mandating that stay-at-home spouses receive a percentage of their working spouse’s salary? Absolutely not. I feel this is an issue that shouldn’t even come close to becoming Idaho law and one that could be solved with simple communication… but, as the times have shown us, anything is possible.