Traditional Families are More Productive in the Long Run

Traditional Families are More Productive in the Long Run

“In simple English, it turns out that households with a homemaker who specializes in childrearing, while the other parent focuses completely on their career, tend to be more productive in the long run.” This quote is from an article called, “Families With a Stay-At-Home Parent Are Better Off, According to a Nobel Prize Winner in Economics.” The author supports the notion of women being keepers at home and men being the providers and gives plenty of evidence why this is best.

“In his 1981 book A Treatise on the Family, Becker analyzed the household as a sort of factory, producing goods and services such as meals, shelter, and child care. One of the interesting discoveries found was that, in order to maximize household output and wealth, once a family has kids, it’s generally better for one parent to stay home and run the household while the other parent with the higher income potential focuses 100 percent on work and maximizing their career.

“When the members of a household specialize in their respective fields, they’re able to maximize the total output of their economic production. A breadwinner who doesn’t have to worry about housework can dedicate their focus on optimizing their career track. For example, a husband whose wife is a full-time homemaker can dedicate his focus completely on his work outside of the home. If their child falls ill, the breadwinner won’t have to worry about asking his employers for time off to stay home and care for the sick child.”

The author goes on to give all of the benefits of clearly defined roles in the home. Imagine that! God’s ways are perfect, as if this is any surprise to those of us who love the Lord and His ways. When the wife is a homemaker and stays home to care for her home and children, the husband can pour all of his energies into his job and not have to worry about sick children, running them to sports activities, cooking, and cleaning. There’s a good reason that God said that it was not good for a man to live alone, thus he needed a help meet.

Bearing and raising children along with running a household is a lot of work but so it working in the workforce to provide for one’s family. When each spouse knows their role and works hard at it, much good is accomplished. There is beauty in order. Marriages are stronger and children are happier. Men and women weren’t created to do it all. A man who works hard for his family should not have to come home and clean the home and care for the children. If he does, great but if he doesn’t, that’s great too since he’s working hard so his wife can stay home full time with the children to care for them and the home.

In the same way, a woman who has to bear and raise children and care for the home should not have to go into the workforce to provide. When this happens, something suffers and it’s usually the marriage. That’s way too high of a cost to pay for a wife to have a career. What if the husband wants her to work? Please, women, discuss this before marriage! If you’re already married, ask the Lord daily to convict your husband and change his mind. It’s a lot easier to live simply and frugally when a wife is home full time. The children need the mother at home.

If you have the privilege of having a hard working husband so you can be home full time with your children, be careful to live within his income. Cook food from scratch. Learn contentment with what you have. Learn to do without. Work hard in your home. Be productive. Be like the Proverbs 31 woman and be known for looking well to the ways of her household.

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Proverbs 31:27

16 thoughts on “Traditional Families are More Productive in the Long Run

  1. Amen! The only thing I didn’t like about the article is that it didn’t say women are to be homemakers. Too many husbands today are stay at home dads, and too many women are the “bread winners.” God created specific roles for specific people. Men don’t have the connection or the patience to properly raise children. Likewise, women have too many emotional issues to be able to think properly for the workforce. That’s why God created the roles he did. That’s why women aren’t leaders in the church. We were created to bear children and raise them, not men.

  2. Well, I said it, and the example he gave was of a wife being the homemaker and the man being the provider. It’s not politically correct in this day and age to say these things but God’s Word and His ways never change!

  3. It makes perfect sense to me. My mom worked and our house was pure chaos. Nobody was happy, especially not my mom. She wanted nothing more than to be a housewife. We were the opposite of productive. DEstructive with a capital D!

  4. Great post!!

    A monumental truth.

    When sex is returned to heterosexual marriage, and when married couples have all the children the woman is medically capable of having, the vast majority of the worlds problems will be solved.

  5. Well said Lori! Men need to work and provide and women need to stay home where they belong raising babies and obeying their husbands. Nothing more to say!

  6. This is SO good and couldn’t be more true—all of it!!! After my husband and I scaled back as far as we were able and then put our complete faith and trust in the Lord, it has been absolutely amazing to see the ways He has provided for our family since I resigned from my part-time RN position to be home full-time with our 3 young children. My husband’s faith has grown so much in the last year and he is so satisfied being the provider, protector, and head of the family that God made him to be. I have never loved any role as much as I do being a full-time homemaker and now a homeschool mama to my upcoming 1st grader, preschooler & 2 year-old starting in the fall. Our family is THRIVING in every way imaginable and our marriage has never been stronger. We live in a very liberal state and what we are doing totally goes against the mainstream grain here—even in churches! I praise the Lord everyday for waking us up to how much better and more fulfilling HIS ways truly are! I hope this is an encouragement to someone!

  7. I love traditional family life. I’ve noticed people accept orphans, meaning when the mother or father died, but they are reluctant to help with children from a divorce. I know this because I’m in the UK, we had a lot of widows and orphans because of the second world war. People say it’s OK for women to have a career instead of staying at home with their children, but they leave the children with other women not other men. Most paid child care is done by women not men. Sunday school teachers are usually women, baby sitters are usually women. The love you get from your father is just as good as the love you get from your mother but deep down I think every one knows who should be at home with the children and who should be out at work. Once upon a time in the UK, a widow would get a widows pension and any other money needed, for life or until she re-married, not now, now you only get a widows pension for one year. (Please note, we don’t just pay income tax we also pay national insurance, it’s national insurance that pays the benefit money.) I don’t want to talk politics, the point is, that when the traditional family unit is no longer valued then every thing else falls apart too.

  8. Heather Terry, as a childcare worker, I can confirm that this is true. I have been in childcare since I was sixteen, and I can count on one hand the number of male coworkers I have had over the last five years. That actually presents a few difficulties because it really does take a firm hand to keep the older boys especially in line. For example, I am petite, both in height and weight. I have always had trouble keeping the older boys in line (except for the really well behaved ones, which do exist and are a joy to have in my group). The older boys are as big or bigger than I am. I cannot really make them behave. Whether people want to admit it or not, the older boys really do respond better to a man’s correction for the most part, especially an older man that they all know well.

  9. The author is an economist. He was explicit in citing that the highest income earner should stay home. The example is of a housewife but he’s actually encouraging stay at home dads too.

    What are your thoughts on this Lori? I have come across of few fathers who took time to be stay at home fathers and loved the opportunity to bond with their kids in that way? They would even reccomend it to every man. This is such a recent phenomenon? What do you say to it. I realized that it’s very novel to men as well hence why they like the idea I presume but its a growing trend. Is it unChristian? What happens if Christian men get on board?

  10. I can tell you exactly why there are no male childcare workers. Well I can tell you why there aren’t in New Zealand, anyway.
    Here, we once had a number of men working in childcare. And then we had this man called Peter Ellis. He was accused of molesting children. He’s recently died, but he spent his entire life trying to clear his name, and although I don’t know him personally, most articles I have read are that he was framed and set up, and he didn’t molest the children at all.
    So we have fear on both sides: men wanting to go into childcare don’t, because they’re afraid of their lives being ruined by a false accusation. And we have parents afraid of men in childcare because of course these men must be predators, wanting to harm their children.
    Even male teachers in the primary school setting are very rare, for these reasons. It’s desperately sad.

  11. This is slightly off topic. But did you know? Most “traditional” millionaires who are married have their wife stay home? It’s been researched over and over again. The man focuses on providing and excelling in career and wife cares for the home.
    These people didn’t come from money. They had regular jobs, live super frugal, and saved. They had monthly budget meetings as well.
    Something for people who are against traditional values to think about before dismissing all of what Lori has shared. Great article. Thanks Lori!

  12. Wow! What a blessing! May you find fulfillment in all you do.
    Your kids will remember this and it will get passed down to another generation. I hope you will continue to be there for your grandkids as well.

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