There's way too much fight when one person doesn't have income, unless this person that chose to stay at home can tolerate living on handout all the time. With one income the person that has the income has absolute power in the household. It's not fair. You have no idea. Not everyone wants to be subject to another person financially. It's hard when you have no saying on how to spend the money and have to ask the other person to give you allowance every month. Been there, done that. It was hell.
To my opionion, every person, excluding the minors that can't hold a job, should have his/her own coffer, a personal saving aside from the main piggybank, for the rainy days. And holding a job is important for keeping the self esteem too. If you're the one that never had one paycheck in your whole life, it downgrades your personal value.
I've been a SHTM for a decade or so until I decided I couldn't live like that anymore when my youngest went to daycare. I started working remotely at home but it doesn't make sense to work at home when there's no needs to stay at home anymore. My remote job doesn't have retirement plans or any other benefits. So I started working at schools as a substitute teacher, and at the weekend I work at a grocery store. Recently I landed a job as a teacher's assistant with full benefit. Finally I got out of the rot of being a mom that has no appreciative values. Yes, no one, including the moms themselves, think staying at home is a legitimate thing to do for life time.
Time has changed, indeed. Not having a job with a basic, minimum income is no longer acceptable, either psychologically or socially. Your wife and you are living in two different worlds now. One is a normal functional member of the society, the other is an outcast, a domestic helper, or an invalid in a sense.
