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FEW MOMS ABLE TO STAY AT HOME
Santa Barbara News-PressCamilla Cohee06/06/2003
A nationwide increase in the number of children being raised by stay-at-home moms isn't apparent in Santa Barbara County, where the high cost of living tends to make stay-at-home momhood a luxury.
And when middle-income mothers do stay home, they often find ways to bring in an income -- whether starting their own businesses or providing child care out of their homes.
"I've been talking to a lot of stay-at-home moms who are finding ways to work at home, trying to find that balance to be able to bring in more income and continue to use their education and their brains," said Rachael Steidl of Santa Barbara, who made the decision to quit work after the birth of her twins Ashley and Whitney, now 4. She also has a 1-year-old, Emily.
"The amount we would have to spend to have twins in day care would have been my salary," said Ms. Steidl, whose husband is a researcher at UCSB.
With her own professional background in management, Ms. Steidl recently launched her own Web site, a resource guide and support network for parents.
"As wonderful as it is to raise kids, at the end of the day, who really wants to know how many loads of laundry I folded?" Census analyst Brian Bresolin of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments said, based on data he's seen, there appears to be no significant change in the number of local children being raised by stay-at-home mothers.
"I haven't seen the big change they've seen nationwide," he said. After surveying 50,000 households across the country, the U.S. Census Bureau determined that 10.6 million children were being raised by full-time stay-at-home moms last year, up 13 percent in a little less than a decade. According to the study, last year there were 105,000 stay-home dads caring for 189,000 kids under age 15.
The national trend has been attributed in part to the economic boom of the 1990s -- allowing more families to afford having one parent stay home -- and to the influence of America's growing Latino population. Home schooling may also play a part, but figures linking that with stay-at-home moms were not available.
