Why you shouldn’t ignore the value of staying at home.

If you’re a stay at home parent or homemaker you’ll know it isn’t just watching the TV it’s a endless supply of to do tasks. As a stay at home parent you can forget the 48-hour working time directive, as infact, on average your tasks will take up to 98 hours of your time! This can range from 3am wake up feeding calls, to being that free taxi in the middle of the night when your oldest has been exercising their right to drink alcohol, or just keeping on top of your weekly cleaning!

When you apply for a mortgage, loan, or any other type of finance that asks for a joint income breakdown, often ‘homemakers’ can be left feeling deflated when the number you put down just does not feel right considering all you do.

Do you know your true value as a ‘homemaker’? Don’t under estimate how valuable you are…

Let’s begin by listing the potential roles you play (This will vary household to household);

The roles:

• Childcare
• Chef
• Dog walker
• Personal shopper
• Cleaner
• Driver
• Laundry Service
• DIY

Now this list by no means covers everything you do, we could even say you’re a guidance councillor, first aider, careers adviser and so on, however these are duties that most of us complete naturally, and have just become something ‘expected’ of us.

Now let’s have a look in depth at each of these roles;

**I’ve taken a UK average throughout this document, of course you’ll need to work out your exact worth based on your location & number of hours you spend on the role.

Childcare – Your worth, £8 per hour – Time on the job: Hours 4-9 per day

Probably one of the most exhausting jobs on the list, childcare is a pretty common one. We’ll often here about how it’s ‘not worth’ parents going back to work, because the extreme costs of childcare out way what they’d be earning. If your child is too young to go to preschool you could be looking at 9 hours a day and if in education this could be 4 hours a day, 1 hour in the morning and 3 in the afternoon.

Chef – Your worth, £8.39 per hour – Time on the Job: Hours 2 per day

Preparing 3 meals a day, trying to achieve variety, healthiness, and interest in your meals without taking the whole day to prepare is no easy feat.  It’s something which many Michelin chefs strive to accomplish!!

Dog Walker – £9.45 per hour Hours 1 per day

Now if you’re like me this can also be seen as personal therapy, depending on your dogs enthusiasm for barking at random objects and how disciplined they are. However, if you were not at home, they would not be able to spend the day shut in the house and so you’d be paying out for someone else to have the joy of long walks!

Personal shopper – £25.11 per hour – 36 minutes per day ( 3 hours per week)

This includes the main food shop, whether online or in shop it still takes time to create the list and add all the items to your trolley or virtual basket. Whether we’re sorting through the racks on the high street, or doing a price comparison online, all of these things take time: your valuable time!  

Cleaner – £15 per hour – 36 minutes per day ( 3 hours per week)

We have all been in that situation where the kids are screaming, guests are coming round and you all you can think of is that the house is a mess and where did I put that toilet duck?

On a serious note, to keep the house dusted, hoovered and bathroom lime scale free is no small task and takes a little bit of time each day, some do a room a day, others a blitz of whole house in one hit. Again, the time for this can depend on how messy the children, let alone your other half and the size of your house etc.

Driver – £15 per hour – Hours 1 per day

Whether it’s from the school, afternoon clubs, supermarkets, the miles and time soon add up on this one.

Laundry Service – £74.85 – Based on 3 loads per week and 15 ironed items

This doesn’t seem a lot as even as I load the fourth pile of washing in for the day. However, If I had used this as my measure then the end figures would have been astronomical!

DIY – £15 per hour – 24 minutes per day ( 2 hours per week)

Based on the lowest level of DIY talent, e.g. painting, putting up shelves etc. 

Here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for, your value