Every mom knows being a full-time parent is the hardest, most undervalued job there is. But should stay-at-home moms get a salary in the conventional sense? Influential South African businesswoman Wendy Luhabe thinks so. During a recent interview with CNN, she claimed stay-at-homes should get a 10 per cent cut of their husband's salary.
In Luhabe's view, getting a wage for the work of raising children is the only way to validate the job and prove that it has "societal value".
“Money," says Luhabe, "is the currency that we use to define value of a contribution to the world, so why shouldn’t we do the same for the work of bringing up children, which I think is probably the most important contribution that the world should be valuing.”
Yes, and no. While mothering is definitely an important contribution to the world, isn't raising your child a reward in itself? Staying home full-time to raise children is not only a personal choice, it's also something of a luxury these days.
And anyway, where exactly would this extra 10 per cent cut come from? The government? The husband's employer? When you look at it this way, Luhabe’s idea of paying stay-at-home-moms might be laudable but it's also vaguely preposterous.
What do you think? Should stay-at-home moms be compensated for their "work"? Pay back could start at home, with maybe a subsidized massage!
A special education teacher is in hot water after posting material on Facebook mocking his students.
Atlanta-based teacher Jeremy Hollinger allegedly posted a picture of himself on the social media site wearing a helmet that belongs to one of his grade-two students.
"My son wears a helmet for seizures during P.E.," said Celeste Dennis, mom of a student at Eichold-Mertz Elementary School. "[Hollinger] had a picture of himself with my son's helmet on, making fun of him like that was some type of a joke."
A school official told the TV station WALA-TV that "the appropriate measures were taken," although Hollinger is still employed at Eichold-Mertz Elementary.
Hollinger isn't the only teacher who has been caught on Facebook.
New Jersey's Viki Knox, another special education teacher, made anti-gay comments on Facebook, and New York teacher, Christine Rubino, confessed following the drowning of one of her students that she "hates their guts."
Special education by nature requires very special and compassionate individuals. Obviously these particular teachers are in the wrong vocation. Do you think Hollinger deserved more than a reprimand?
Remember how the bride of Frankenstein's hair went white overnight? Well, this is the stuff of nightmares, yummies. Imagine aging 50 years in a matter of days.
That's exactly what happened to a 23-year-old Vietnemese woman. After an allergic reaction to seafood, Nguyen Thi Phuong switched medications, and in the course of a few days the drug mixture left her skin sagging and wrinkled.
At 26 years old, Phuong is now unrecognizable, reports Tuoi Tre News. Although the precise cause of her speed-aging still has doctors scratching their heads, her condition is thought to be the rare lipodystrophy -- a by-product of too much steroid medication.
Essentially the fatty tissue under the skin disintegrates while the skin itself continues to grow. However, specialists at Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University Hospital believe Phuong may be suffering from mastocytosis: "an incurable disorder caused by the presence of too many mast cells."
Additional further testing is needed, doctors are hopeful that treatment will restore 50-70 per cent of Phuong's skin.
Throughout the ordeal, Phuong's husband has stayed by her side, though the couple have delayed starting a family.
“He still loves me like before despite the fact that I look old and ugly," Phuong told Tuoi Tre News. "With him, I feel more confident to live and work.”
The disorder differs from progeria -- like the reverse of that which afflicted Brad Pitt's character in Benjamin Button -- which ages children 10 times faster than normal. Progeria is caused by excessive progerin, the protein responsible for destroying cells that cause us to age.
Image Credit: www.dailyrecord.co.uk
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