A recent study found that a stay-at-home mom is worth more than $184,000 a year. But according to one dad, raising children is a privilege and "not a job whatsoever."
“Do you know how many single mothers out there actually have jobs and then have to come home and do your job?” Jared Sayre, who has a daughter, asks in a TikTok video.
Sayre notes that he was a stay-at-home dad for four months and it was the “easiest s---t."
“I can do all the daily responsibilities that come with taking care of a house in no time, and other than that, all you have to do is watch your kid,” he explains.
At the same time, Sayre says he's not "knocking stay-at-home mothers" and has "respect for them."
Sayre goes on to argue that stay-at-home mothers can “nap” and “watch TV" in all their free time.
Dustin Poynter, a content creator in Arkansas, was so disgusted by Sayre’s commentary, that he stitched a reaction video. In the clip, Poynter waves a red flag to indicate Sayre’s flawed logic.
“I am more frustrated than a mosquito sucking on a statue!” an exasperated Poynter exclaims. Poynter grew up with a stay-at-home mom, and because he was much older than his siblings, he was very aware of how much work she was doing.
“I witnessed firsthand the stress that comes with maintaining an entire house— Olympic diving across the kitchen to save your child from putting its hand in the garbage disposal 50 times a day, listening to constant screaming meltdowns,” Poynter recalls. “And most importantly, trying not to cause irrevocable physical and psychological harm to an innocent human being who didn’t ask to be here.”
Sayre did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TODAY.com, but Poynter was happy to chat.
“What really bothered me is that he was putting people down for no reason,” Poynter tells TODAY.com. “He was trying to discredit a person’s hard work and make them feel bad. That's not OK."
Poynter’s TikTok was flooded with comments.
- "I’ve been both. SAHM is by far harder than anything else I’ve ever done.”
- "My kids were always more demanding than any boss I’ve had in my 30 years of working!"
- "Wait a minute stay at home mom’s are watching TV and taking naps. I must be doing this wrong."
- "Was a stay at home single mom for a year. no sleep(eyes twitched/hallucinations) messy, exhausted. I prefer my corporate job over raising a baby! At least I get breaks!"
- "Other stay at home Mums are having naps?!?! Sign me up I don’t get to do that."
- "Was a SAHM for 3 years then had to go back to work for my own sanity. Literally just worked to pay for daycare so I could feel like a human again."
Sayre doubled down on his views in a follow-up video, where he called the backlash “comical.”
“If you just cook, clean and take care of your kids, it’s not that big of a deal,” he says. “That’s your responsibility.”