For New Parents, Life Insurance Can Help with a Difficult Job

What would you do if you found a job listing that offered a six-figure salary just to stay at home?

There are some conditions attached, of course. The responsibilities include cooking, cleaning, transportation, but nothing you haven’t seen before. There’s also an odd caveat that your co-worker is prone to emotional outbursts, frequently with no notice at all.

Let’s say you apply for this job anyway and get called in for an interview. The job starts to sound way more involved than what you initially thought, you also sound like a counselor and a teacher. The hours are pretty extreme, too; sometimes it calls for emergency clean-up sessions at 3 a.m. There’s also no vacation time – you are on the clock 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

Just who is paying this salary? Well, unfortunately, this job does not actually exist as a paid position – you’re a new parent, and this role is more like an unpaid internship. A 2022 report from Insure.com estimates that a stay-at-home parent would earn a salary of $126,725 if they were appropriately compensated for the work that is required, based on wage information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics¹.

The reality for all new parents, whether you stay at home or return to work, is that you’re on the hook for these responsibilities anyway. That’s why it’s critical to have your life insurance in order if you’ve recently brought children into your life.

Short-Term and Long-Term Needs

Your children are dependent on you for everything they need, which includes their long-term needs along with the constant, day-to-day needs.

Life insurance can go a long way in helping to stabilize their future; what would happen to them if something happened to you?

Even if you have an older life insurance policy, or one provided through your job, it’s critical that you re-evaluate your circumstances and consider the new expenses you have, both now and down the road: child care costs and future college tuition (and don’t forget less expected costs like braces and other orthodontic work) – in addition to how your regular monthly bills will rise with new members in the family.

While it can be challenging to think about that in the first few months as a new parent, it doesn’t need to be. Our AAA Life insurance professionals can walk you through every step of the way and help you find the right insurance for your family – leaving you to enjoy more precious time with them.
 

¹ Gambhir, Nupur. Mother’s Day Index 2022: Mom’s unpaid work worth 9.2% more than last year. Insure.com. May 3, 2022