Leaving Career to be Homemaker: Mutual Decisions But is it Mutually Beneficial?
A story of a Microsoft engineer who quit a flourishing career to become a stay-at-home mom
I recently met a middle-aged woman through Facebook marketplace. To keep her identity anonymous, I will call her Sarah. Sarah purchased an item from me and on the day she came over to pick up the item, she and I hit it off right away as we had tech careers, parenting and Seattle in common. We shared our journeys in tech. Sarah shared her story and it stunned me. Her story is the story of many women and I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days.
This is her story
Sarah was an engineer at Microsoft for 10 years and had a flourishing career. She and her husband had demanding jobs in tech and young kids at home so they together decided that it would be best for Sarah to be a stay-home-parent. It financially made sense too because Sarah was earning less than her husband.
Sarah stayed home for 10 years, raised the kids and sent them off to college. Everything in her life was going as planned. Years went by, kids went off to college, she did her part and was looking forward to next chapter of her life.
