Okay, I know this a bit like preaching to the choir, but I have a great book-on-tape for you to listen to from Listen & Live Audio (www.listenandlive.com). It’s called How to Help Your Husband Make More Money So You Can Be a Stay-At-Home Mom, by Joanne Watson and read by Kimberly Schraf ($17.95 for cassette or $23.95 for CD). Isn’t that a great title?! Now, I know most of our beloved readers are stay-at-home and homeschooling moms and dads, but there are some great ideas and resources in this book. The concept is simple - many families feel like they have to both work to “make ends meet.” Now, if you want to stay home with your kids there are only a couple of options, including spend less, make things last longer, or make more. Most families could cut expenses a good amount, but as Mrs. Watson points out, sometimes there are expenses that can’t be cut, such as medical expenses or unexpected emergencies. Therefore, another option is to help your husband make more at his job, thus freeing you to stay home without mortgaging the kids!

I want to confess that I’m a bit of a snob on this issue. We have always worked things out so one of us, mostly me, could be home with the kids. We did this even when we were in graduate school and making less than peanuts. Most homeschooling families know that God will provide a way to make those dollars stretch further and do with less so that we can give our children the wonderful gift of homeschooling. All that being said, the concepts in this book can go a long way toward making this sacrifice a bit easier. What if your husband really could be making more doing what he enjoys doing and is really good at? On the other hand, what if you have to work part-time in the evenings and weekends to make ends meet? A little planning (and a lot of prayer) might give your husband the opportunity to be more successful in his job.

There were many things I really liked about this book. Probably the best is that Mrs. Watson emphasizes teamwork at every turn. She stresses that you are a helper for your husband, so that you can both realize your mutual dreams. Nagging your husband about not making enough is a quick road to a fight! But, encouraging your husband, networking for him, setting goals with him, and most importantly, praying for and with him, puts you both on the same team with the same goal. This book gives the practical “how tos” that make the process easier, as well as ample resources. Much of it could come from any good find-a-great-job-at-a-great-salary type of book, but adds the valuable insight of how to work on this project together. For example, the wife can help network for her husband, can stuff envelopes and type resumes, and can do research on the Internet or at the library about job openings, average salaries, specific companies, etc. Moreover, the most important way the wife can help is to encourage and pray for her husband as he takes the steps he needs to take. This is a great book filled with wonderful ideas, tremendous resources, information, encouragement, and practical steps. It is also witty and enjoyable listening!

-- Product review by: Dr. Anne Margaret Wright, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine

Here’s another How to Help Your Husband Make More Money So You Can Be a Stay-At-Home Mom review!

How to Help Your Husband Make More Money is precisely about helping your husband make more money. It is not about cutting costs or learning to live within your budget. Mrs. Watson simply makes her case for increasing your husband’s earnings and sets about clearly defining a road map for you to follow in achieving this end.

She begins her book with the preface that if you’ve already decided that going to work is not for you and you don’t want to work from home, or lower your standard of living, then her book can help you. I would say that she also assumes the following: that your husband is in fact in favor of you staying at home with the children, that he does have the desire to earn more money and wants to advance in his position, that you are willing to do much research and leg-work to help your husband achieve this goal, and finally, that you do have some monetary resources available to help you to do so.

I liked the fact that Mrs. Watson clearly outlines every step by giving references and websites. How to Help Your Husband Make More Money is filled with resource information to move you along. It is presented in a timely and pleasant manner, which make the tapes easy to listen to. Positive interaction, support, and teamwork between the spouses are consistently emphasized as a means to achieve this unified goal. Her research is thorough with both time-tested suggestions and a few new ones the average person may not think of on his/her own. In conclusion, Mrs. Watson warns that although there may be times of stress while your husband is working his way up the corporate ladder, there must in the end remain a healthy balance between work and family.

How to Help Your Husband Make More Money would provide good, solid instruction to a husband who is seeking ways to advance his career or has been laid off from a job, as well as a young person seeking his or her first job. It would also be great for the man or woman who is in college getting ready to enter the job market on a full-time basis. Mrs. Watson gives some profitable advice on how to make yourself marketable and how to become more valuable once you are hired for a position. She also makes a strong case for etiquette on the job (something which most people overlook).

There were several aspects of the book that would make me personally proceed with a little caution. I seemed to get the feeling that if the wife were not careful she might be taking more control over the husband in an area where God should be in control. Mrs. Watson goes so far as to stress making friends based on their ability to help your husband. While I believe in making business contacts, I think this is one area in which we as Christians need to exercise integrity. We must be above reproach in our relationships to others. I couldn’t help feeling that part of what was being sought after here was in reality part of our “American dream and culture” rather than reliance on God. There was no mention of earning more in order to give more or the practicing of good stewardship, only the rewards of having more, i.e. country clubs, acreage, horses, and bigger houses.

I feel that we would do well to clearly stress to our sons (and daughters)that they must be prepared to meet the needs of their families by taking this area into consideration before marriage. Taking the advice of Larry Burkett in the beginning of setting up house would be more profitable. I believe that God is interested in every area of our lives. If each partner is seeking His ultimate will, then God is faithful and will provide the opportunities for advancement. He is interested in meeting our needs. Nonetheless, How to Help Your Husband Make More Money, provides a wealth of information to help you and your spouse market your job skills to their best advantage.

-- Product Review by: Teri Lucas, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine

Here’s another How to Help Your Husband Make More Money So You Can Be a Stay-At-Home Mom review!

“A highly valuable resource...will surely help mothers fulfill their dreams.” Jeanette Liesefski, founder, National Association of At-Home Mother.

“If you’ve ever dreamed of being a stay-at-home mom but couldn’t afford it, this is an indispensable guide that will help you achieve that goal.” Kelly Reno, Good Gifts From the Home.

Do you see your husband off in the morning while you’re getting the kids ready for school? Alternatively, do you wish finances were not keeping you at the office all day and away from your children? How often have you and your beloved life partner sat down at the breakfast table and discussed his strengths, his gifts? Wouldn’t you just love to be more involved with what he’s doing all day long – but from the home front? Wow. Guess I just never thought of it that way!

Your husband has some wonderful gifts given by God to help provide a living in that world, and YOU CAN HELP HIM! Yes, you can. Call those ads in the newspaper. List his strengths and experience. Update his resume on your home computer or use Kinko’s. Sit down together at the kitchen table or at your home office desk and practice answering performance review and interview questions. Then, once you both have it down perfectly, go get your videocam and practice everything; successful dress and even posture says a lot about an executive!

Get prospective employer information. Visit companies and recruiters. Recruiters are paid to help you find the best match. You are not tied to your husband’s workplace during the day, so you can do phone calls and visits to help him get in that proverbial door. Make a list of the network connections YOU have – think about the parents in your homeschool group, your coffee klatch, your neighbors. What companies do they work for? Their relatives and friends? Or, if you are working, but considering being at home, you might think about your co–workers, your day care contacts. You are your husband’s partner and you can greatly assist him in these areas. You might be very surprised the contacts you already have and what they can do with you to give your husband the opportunity to show what he has the potential to do. As an unexpected benefit, just think about what his added appreciation of your practical (down in the nitty-gritty with him) involvement, plus his added self-confidence, can do for your relationship together as a family! What a fantastic untapped source of ideas.



--Product review by: Karen Houston, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine