What Do You Do?

Unpaid work is still work

Photo by Adam Nir on Unsplash

I’ve been paid to be a lot of things: server, cook, barmaid, receptionist, gallery girl, accountant, data entry automaton, catering drudge, writer, editor, and curatorial assistant. The pay has never been great — or even good — but it has helped, as every dollar does. Some of it was hard, some boring, and some fun, but all of it was paid.

Then I had kids. I worked some, in the beginning, but finally crashed into the modern mothers’ quandary — money. The best job I could find, 30 years ago with a pitiful Art History degree, offered a salary of $19k, while childcare would cost me $17k. The choice: Never see my kids for $2k/year, or never leave my kids and be poor. I chose the latter, worked harder than ever, lost a bit of my mind, and pinched every penny. I picked up paying jobs over the years that didn’t require childcare — catering gigs at night when my husband wasn’t working, freelance gigs at home with small, demanding maniacs all over me — but my job was basically kids. I have four of them. It’s a lot.

Way back in 2011, Forbes published a piece, “Why Stay-At-Home Moms Should Earn A $115,000 Salary.” I have never forgotten it. It’s a hypothetical extrapolation in which stay-at-home moms are compensated, with actual money, for their efforts. The tasks of the SAHM are broken down and real market value is calculated for…