I've been called a MILF before, but never a NILF

...until today. So what is a NILF? Well, according to a recent study on employment and military spouses, conducted by the Rand Corporation, NILF stands for "Not In Labor Force".

OK, well, I think NILF has a far nicer ring to it than "unemployed". Have I ever told you how much I hate when people say I'm unemployed? I REALLY hate that. I'm home with my kids. I'm NOT unemployed. I'll take "Stay-at-home-mom", "SAHM", "housewife", or really ANYTHING besides "unemployed". For one, by definition, to be unemployed means to not have a job, but to want one. I don't want a job. It's completely different. Now someone apparently understands that, and we get a new category, NILF. I could get used to that classification. It's rather innocuous.

Of course, the true gem in all of this is the findings of the report. What needs to be done in the face of all this NILF-ness? Build more daycare centers, of course. Talk about totally missing the point.

In the face of high unemployment rates, and the most difficult job market ever, I think they should send single-income families a handwritten thank you card for only occupying ONE job, thus allowing the hypothetical second job to go to someone else who probably needs it a lot more, not telling us to throw our children into newly constructed daycare centers, and flood the job market even further. Are these people idiots? A popularization of a single-income lifestyle for families would help the unemployment numbers to come down because more people who wanted/needed a job could get one more easily than if all people were stuck in the two-income trap, and are occupying two jobs per couple rather than one. That's an impossible change, of course. It makes sense in a way, though, doesn't it? At least a little? I don't know, but that's what occurred to me when I read that the solution to NILF military spouses was to build more daycares. Backward logic at its finest, if you ask me.