Why do I have a Job?

I was watching a show on television the other day about women who are overwhelmed with their lives because they have careers outside of the home in addition to taking care of their family. One woman described how she hated being the financial officer of her company and another explained how she spends most of her time completing tasks for her teaching job. I could not help thinking about my own struggle with my desire to have a career while still being a mother. Of course, the next thought was then why should they struggle like this when they could simply choose not to work. None of the women seemed to be in financial danger if they quit as they had spouses who were also employed.

My husband’s words began to ring in my ear. He believes that I should choose to stay home because we will never be rich from our jobs and my income just makes it easier for us to be better consumers. I began to question all of my arguments for having a job: It enables me to save more money for our future; I can save for retirement; my children can have summer vacations; I can go on the occasional shopping spree; it gives me something to do in the days; I can make friends and converse with adults like me; blah, blah, blah it goes. As I sit here writing down all these excuses, the reality I see and feel is that my husband is right--I work to consume. When I initially started working, on payday I would think about the new outfit, new purse…the new shoes. I thought about going out to dinner more than once in the week, perhaps treating the children to a movie with dinner. Why are these things so important to me? Why are these consumer driven desires so important to our society? Does this make us better people? Are we better parents? Of what real advantage is the effect of our willingness to give up our lives at home for a few extra dollars that are mostly used to increase the wealth of those that are truly wealthy? Could our desire to consume more than the neighbors and co-workers be driving the economic problems so many of us are feeling today?

Did you need the house you are living in or just wanted to show off how much you can afford? Could you have purchased your car slightly used and saved several thousand dollars? Did you have to go out to eat tonight? Do you realize that you spend at least 2.5 hours on a typical night out to eat at your favorite restaurant? Just think of what you could have done with the time had you stayed home. Cooking dinner may have taken 1 hour. You would have had an additional 1.5 hours to spend relaxing with your family. So tell me…why are we OK with the idea of sitting at a restaurant waiting to be seated for 2 hours? Crazy, isn’t it? So why do we do it? Why do we do all we can to make money and have a nice home then make up all these reasons to not be in it? My husband asks me that all the time. I no longer have an answer.

I must admit that I have gotten to be a lot more frugal over the years since I started working. I want to keep as much of my hard earned money as I can. So now, I don’t go on shopping sprees; I don’t go out to dinner twice each week (I’m watching my girlish figure too!!); I try to spend only when I have to and it is almost painful to see how much is left, even after being careful, by the time the next payday rolls around. Granted, I save before I spend, but it sure would be nice to save even more!!

Every day at work is less tolerable to me. Is there anyone who truly loves working? So why work when we don’t have to? Why can’t we just let go of a few things, stop consuming so much and be satisfied with less?

Hmmm…let me know what you think. Post your comment below.