Everyone wants to be in a class all by themselves. Whether it is in sports or business or fame, people want to be set apart and recognized. I was doing some research for a project last week and I found out that I am in a very elite class. But, it will not be earthly profitable like being the winner of American Idol.
It seems that being a stay at home parent is a rare thing. And being a stay at home dad is even rarer. The new normal is that both parents are working and the children under the age of 18 are either in daycare, school or after school care. Now, let me say that I know some families have no choice and that the kids have to go to daycare. Jobs and finances being what they are today makes that a necessity. I am not condemning anyone for that. So don't get me wrong.
So here are the figures. Now, these figures are for married couples with children only. According to the US Census Bureau, 2009 saw about 4 percent of women (963,000) as the only parent in the workforce. Compare that to men with about 28 percent (7.3 million) of them being the only parent working. But, 66 percent (17 million) of married couples were both working in 2009.
So here is the interesting part. Of the stay at home parents, 5.1 million of them are women while 158,000 are men. That is less than one percent of the married couples working. That number is actually up from 140,00 in 2008.
The US had about 330 million citizens in 2008 with about 120 million people working. It turns out that the percentage of stay at home dads to the total population in the US is 0.042 percent.
No wonder I have a hard time find other stay at home dads. I am in elite company.
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