Should housewives get an allowance?(It is a marriage, not a business)

When a mother gives birth to a child, that smile that she wears when she hears him cry for the first time is a memory that never fades. The thought of bringing another life into this world is priceless.

Friday, August 22, 2014
Patrick Buchana

When a mother gives birth to a child, that smile that she wears when she hears him cry for the first time is a memory that never fades. The thought of bringing another life into this world is priceless. If this woman loves this child or children as much as any normal mother would, why should she be paid to take care of them? She said she would love her husband no matter what, so how does payment come in?

If everyone paid their wives for their role, the whole essence of marriage would be lost on us. Marriage would be like any other job where the next available man can marry and pay for the services of their wives for a duration most convenient to them. 

Personally, I would definitely share everything I have with my wife including bank accounts, assets and all possessions in general. With all this, why would I want to pay her?  Does this entail her asking for a pay raise? 

If we agree that there shouldn’t be overt gender discrimination in the workplace, in the same sense, we shouldn’t enforce conceptions of gender roles on the household. When the wife is sick or away, the husband takes on the role and doesn’t rush to ask for payment to do this and that. It is a responsibility and one that each one of us signed up for. 

How would people even start valuing how much to pay their housewives? As if there aren’t enough misunderstandings in families already, why would anyone want to escalate this with fights about who gets paid, how much and why. 

This should not be about who stayed home and took care of the kids or did what chore. This should be about love and care, and, in my opinion, that has no price to it. 

A family that loves working together won’t fight about what the housewife used the money for because each one is responsible and loves to share as a whole.  A family is a unit brought together by love and commitment; a family is not a business where financial gain should take centre stage. 

If a woman has accepted to stay home and raise the kids, why then would she want to get paid for it? I mean it’s not like she is babysitting.  It’s not like she is doing anyone a favour. They are her kids. It is her family. And family is priceless.