Women

How Do We Feel About Women's Work?

Plus: Rampant illiteracy, teen-suicide rates and screens, and more...

Liz Wolfe | 7.10.2026 9:33 AM

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Stay-at-home moms: Reader, let me take your hand and guide you to a realm of the internet that I inhabit, which you probably don't even know exists. Welcome to Mom Twitter, where the discourse vacillates between dumb and enlightening. Today's topic? What exactly the term "stay-at-home mom" means, and whether "work"—presumably meaning formal participation in the labor force—disqualifies you.

moms on TikTok that are like "SAHMs what are you doing to make income from home 🥺 I need to make $200 a week" and the comments are all giving them suggestions…..idk how to tell them that they aren't SAHMs. they are working.

— bunnie (@CuriousBunnie12) July 7, 2026

An online creator I follow was like "yeah I'm a SAHM but I make an income from here and it's more than my husband's so it's a bit different". That's called work from home, not stay at home. You're the main breadwinner. You're self-employed. Why cling to the SAHM label so much? https://t.co/LhcmNguuJH

— pasiem kone na betóne (@Sabrina45X) July 7, 2026

"Stay-at-home mom" means "primary caregiver for her own children." It does not mean "mom who doesn't work at all" (in fact, the primary caregiverness of it all sure is a whole lot of work!) just as it does not generally mean literally "stays at home all day." https://t.co/3LhuOawD9x

— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) July 9, 2026

Perhaps you're thinking, Why should I, a reader of Roundup, care about any of this at all? There are a few reasons. One, at some point in the past, you probably benefited from the work of a stay-at-home mom or homemaker. A wife who fielded the domestic work and raised the kids, or maybe a mom who made sure your clothes were neatly pressed and that dinner was on the table by 5 p.m. each night, or maybe even a very 1970s mom who made you a latchkey kid, throwing some benign neglect your way that ended up helping you develop independence (and keeping the bills paid). Maybe the homemaker was you.

The Reason Roundup Newsletter by Liz Wolfe Liz and Reason help you make sense of the day's news every morning.

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