New Report Suggests That Housewives Are a Drain on the Economy and I Just Spat My Coffee out in Disbelief

Stay at home mums have been targeted as being a drain on the economy, a new report claims. We are told to go back to work for our own benefit, and that of the Australian economy. Never mind the kids, chuck them in childcare — the government has provided rebates for that, right?

Uhhhh, really? REALLY?

This new report, handed down by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has recommended that women need to go back to work to make good use of the wasted resources (ie, university degrees and training) that are sitting idle while they are off raising children. They send a warning of “potentially large losses to the economy” when women stay home to care for kids.

The OECD is basically an international financial consultancy firm, advising governments the world over on how to get the most bang for their buck moving forward. So, like a global financial planner who can’t see why you shouldn’t be able to afford an investment property when you’re a single income family with 3 school aged children, they are advising Australia to simply send the mums back to work and the economy will come good.

Housewives are ruining it for everyone, and if they would just go back to work, we’ll all be better off, themselves included. The report claims that paid work is also “important for women’s personal wellbeing and perceptions of their overall quality of life”.

I do love it when other people tell me what’s good for me.

The report has singled out stay at home mums as being the “greatest untapped potential”.

“One of the areas of greatest untapped potential in the Australian labour force is inactive and/or part-time working women, especially those with children,” it says. “There are potentially large losses to the economy when women stay at home or work short part-time hours.”

Of course we have untapped potential — we spend our days caring for our families and managing the home. We have all the mad skillz, we can do anything, we’re awesome! Mums work the hardest, with shitty hours and no pay. I can see why they want us to come work for the good of the country, but we’re kinda busy right now, raising Australia’s next generation of good, upstanding, future taxpayers.

How dare we keep our “untapped potential” within our own homes instead of using it for the greater good of the country. How can we sleep at night when we selfishly use our mad skillz at home raising babies instead of raising the economy!

The OECD might be correct in identifying that stay at home mums are an amazing resource yet to be put to good use outside the home, but they are just looking at it all financially.

What is the cost to our children (and society in general) if every mum is out there working full time? Who is going to help in the school canteens? Who will run the playgroups? Who will raise our children and look after our elderly?

Where are all these jobs coming from, anyway? Stay at home mums aren’t generally the most prized of employees, especially after a decade of bum-wiping. There are no gold stars next to our names on LinkedIn, indicating years of working for free for other (small) people’s benefit. We’d be lucky to pick up a gig at the supermarket, which would be a barren wasteland during the day because everyone is busy working fulltime!

We’re all doing the best we can with what we have.

Give us a bit of credit, please.

Images: Real Housewives gifs (ha!)