“Moom, you are about the last person who could be called a Trad Wife”
Something like that. I think we were having the convo at the moomincabin. [Psst: KW, where the hell are you gonna go with this? I do not know. Some of it might be snarky.]
An NPR show (1A?) had a segment about trad wives today. My ears perked up although I didn’t really listen to all of it that closely. I think it was mostly about the sort of wives that don’t work outside the home but somehow have the cash to take care of whatever “million” kids they have and keep house and still have time to make Instagram posts showing off their beautiful lives. And maybe a camera crew and some professional chefs, etc. Hey, I said I might be snarky.
Okay. Growing up, my mom was a “trad mom” at first. Sorta. In a shabby little bungalow in the eastern yooperland. She had worked (retail at Monkey Wards) before I was born but my parents decided she needed to stop to raise me and a few years later, my brother.
We never lacked for ANYTHING but there weren’t many luxuries.
When I got to be 10, mom got a teeny tiny teaching job. I was trusted to take care of my brother (and the dog) one afternoon a week. That job led to a master’s degree in education and a full-time job with benefits at the high school. We could actually afford some luxuries at that point. Although my parents were ALWAYS frugal. Thank you mom and dad. We’re trying to emulate you.
A [beloved] relative (doctor’s wife) at one point asked mom why she wanted to go back to work. Mom said something like, “I’m tired of being poor.”
So as an adult, I mostly fell into jobs. I had a childhood tech career and then a second career as a stay-at-home mom, volunteer, and lowly paid youth theatre guild administrator.
Here’s the “kicker”. At a time I didn’t think I would ever work for pay again, the LSCHP hired me into my adult tech career. It turned out to be a job that paid me well. Who’da thunk it?
Do I look like a trad wife in this pic? I do know that my dad’s childhood friend Otto McNaughton Jr. took a fantastic pic of me but I don’t think I look much like a trad wife. Ann Arbor hippie maybe. I also look like my dad here.
April 7th, 2026 at 10:41 pm
That’s such a gorgeous photo! I was never a trad wife. Having a self-employed husband meant that I had the stable job with insurance benefits. My mom sort of was although she was a substitute teacher because she too was tired of being poor.