The Wife Trap: Unpaid Spousal Caregiving in Georgia

Unfortunately, this is not an upbeat post about how much I love my husband and am grateful to be able to support him. I do love him dearly, and I am grateful that I can support him. Evenso, I am mad as hell that because I live in a state (Georgia) that has laws stating that I cannot be paid for caregiving for my husband, I am trapped in a situation where employers don’t want to hire me because I do unpaid caregiving work for my husband. The state says that I am just doing my wifely duty, and the employers look at my resume time gaps and immediately skip over me, despite my education and past experience.

Also, I have been building my business and educating myself. I have also been blessed to connect with other moms who are doing the same. I was very blessed to be featured on the Today Show alongside some of these moms. If you follow my instagram (@leadlikeaqueen), you may have seen the video or an excerpt.

Here is the Boss Moms feature video from the Today Show’s YouTube channel.

Giving back by being a co-leader of the Boss Mom Local Meetup – Atlanta is huge for me because it not only gives me more time to connect with my friends and make new friends, but it also helps me get out of my head by helping another mom who really needs to emerge from isolation and make these kind of awesome connections, too.

One of the main folks this has given me an excuse to hang out with more is my very good friend and my rest coach, Deanna Mason (IG: @refreshedmoms). It’s a delight and an honor to serve alongside her.

I am so blessed to be getting business building support from Boss Mom founder, Dana Malstaff, who recently visited us here in Atlanta. She is a beautiful tall smart woman and an amazing mom and a true Boss Mom. She knows what she’s talking about and her support is helping me to continue my learning journey as I re-build my business even though I have a lot of responsibility to take care of my disabled husband and our kids. One of the webinars* she gave was very detailed and helpful so that I can build my business right this time and structure my time wisely. I’d love for you to see her expertise for yourself. Check out the webinar link, if you’re interested.

My hope is that in this “great” state of Georgia, Deanna (a homeschool mom) and I can support and encourage women like us who may be homeschooling or who may feel isolated and marginalized by their circumstances, such as by being a mom who is also a spousal caregiver, while also building viable, profitable businesses.

Thank you to the Today Show’s Ali Vitali and her producers (especially Maria Pinero) and her camera crew for doing an excellent job putting together this story to keep moms encouraged despite the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic… and now of the lingering variant/s.