The Banned said:TarponChaser said:Texasclipper said:I know a Gen X woman who is a EVP of a Fortune 200 company. Her husband does not work and supposedly stayed at home with the kids but also played a LOT of golf. She also still did a LOT at home. Her style was to leave the office at 4:30 - 5 and then log on remotely after the kids were in bed and work another 2-3 hours when her children were younger. She did a bare minimum of after hours work events.EclipseAg said:
Executive women typically have a spouse who sets his own career aside to manage the household, raise the kids, etc. You can't be a CEO/CFO/etc. if you're always leaving the office to drive Ayden and Kyden to soccer practice.
It's a lonely life, with a lot of emotional lows. Some women are ambitious enough to handle it. Most are not.
At the same time, not all men are capable of giving up their personal lives so completely, either.
The guys in the office all joked about how her husband "had it made". She was quite successful and her children who are in college or about to graduate HS seem to have turned out successfully, but I don't know how she did it. She is quite intelligent and not a DEI hire at all and must manage up well.
Those situations do occur but they're more the exception.
We have some close friends in a similar situation. The husband played basketball at A&M and has always been a teacher/coach. He was a 4A head basketball coach but quit when they had their 3rd kid and the wife was promoted to general counsel for a large O&G services company. She's always been the primary breadwinner. They're our closest friends- the wife and my wife were roommates at A&M, sorority/pledge sisters, etc., and we're respectively the families who will raise each other's kids if. God forbid, something happens to us parents.
He was a full-time stay-at-home-dad for a few years and did most of the stuff at home but they were able to pay for help too (ie- maid). They have 3 kids who are all heavily involved in sports. Their oldest is a junior in HS who is a stud volleyball player and she's getting recruited by a number of D1 colleges. Anyway, he went back into the classroom teaching HS a couple years ago but he handles most of the stuff at home although the kids are old enough to handle a lot of chores.
Ironically, the wife is very traditional in terms of values so I don't see them ever getting divorced but she'll admit feeling very inadequate sometimes because her career prevents her from being the kind of mom her SAHM/teacher mom was able to be. The dad has become one of my closest friends over the years and he's a de facto manager of their kids' athletics. Just a solid dude.
These are the situations in which I wish truth serum existed. Are they happy? Are the faking? If they are are unhappy is it societal pressure or their own biological feelings? If they are happy, is it out of a desire to show non traditional roles work or does their situation genuinely just lead to happiness?
I only know one couple in this role and they are not happy at all. I try to work through it with the husband but it is made more difficult by the undetermined factor of nature vs nurture
We did it for two years. I was plenty happy being stay at home husband. Frankly, I thought I would go insane quickly and I never did. Many days I miss it.
Only reason I went back to work is because my wife was so unhappy with her gig that I stepped in and went back to work so she could get out of her situation. She might be done for good, in which case, I'll keep working as is my duty.