As tradition once had it, mom stayed home and took care of the kids and saw to the house chores while dad was out making the bacon. In the modern age, a change is taking place, and we are seeing a role reversal with some dads staying home as house husbands while the wife plays the role of breadwinner.
It really does not matter which parent stays home, if this is how the family chooses to live. Obviously, they have the income to do so, and the kids get plenty of TLC and attention. It’s not like the stay-at-home parent doesn’t work. In fact, they have a pretty tiring and often difficult job, albeit with no monetary compensation. Still, stay-at-home parents work at it day after day as taxi drivers, housekeeper, laundry attendant, cook, confidante, comforter and even as teacher of life’s values as well as education, in the case of those who homeschool.
When it comes to life insurance, the spouse who does not work outside the home is often uninsured or under insured.
Insuring Your Stay-At-Home Spouse
These days, it’s a given that any family with children should carry some level of life insurance, just in case the unimaginable occurs. Unfortunately, a lot of families make sure to insure the working spouse while leaving the other with little to no coverage. This is acceptable, right? After all, if the non-working spouse happens to die an early death, there’s no income lost. Unfortunately, This is a terrible assumption to make. There are plenty of reasons why you need to make sure that your non-working spouse has adequate life insurance coverage.
Your spouse provides a valuable service, taking care of the household needs, the child care, and often so much more. How will you handle this loss? Can you afford to pay someone to handle the chores and daycare or are you going to try and do it all yourself while still working a full-time job? Adequate life insurance can help pay these expenses, at least until the kids are out of school or at an age where they can look after themselves and help out with the household tasks.
What about the kids? They have lost an important part of their lives. They may have emotional problems, and if attention is not paid, this could lead to trouble later on. In this case, you may find that you need to take some time off work to be there for the kids. The life insurance benefits can help to keep things going during this time, and if the kids need professional therapy, well, it can help with this too.
For the sake of your family, it is best to ensure that both parents are adequately covered by life insurance.
