It is difficult for young adults today to believe there was ever a time when a man could support an entire family comfortably on his own and have his wife be a full time homemaker.

But this was actually a real possibility before the 1970s.  Before the 1970s, it was possible for a simple laborer to make enough to buy a small home, a car and other things his family needed.  It was even possible for him to take his family on a vacation each year.

That all changed when second wave feminism of the 1960s began to lure women into the workforce with the promise of a bigger and better lifestyle.  They also sold the new two income family model as an insurance policy in case the husband ever lost his job or became disabled.

But it was all a trap.

As two income families became the norm by the 1970s home prices and the prices of cars and other goods shot up to account for two income families now making it seem like a requirement for wives to leave their homes and enter the workforce.

Luring women into the workforce was indeed a trap set by feminists and those who wanted to destroy the traditional family structure of the man as the provider and the woman as full time homemaker.

But it is possible for society to reverse this trend but it will take decades to reverse just as it took decades to normalize the two-income family.  And it will take young people who are willing to make great economic sacrifices.

Why should young men and women seek to return to the traditional model of the husband being the provider and the woman being the homemaker? Isn’t this old model just traditional and nothing more?

The tradional model is more than just a tradion of the past based on cultural norms. It is God’s ideal structure for the family unit.

Ephesians 5:28-29 states:

“So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church”

God wants men to be providers for their families just as Christ provides for his church.  A man is to “nourish” or literally feed and provide for the needs of his wife as hw does his own body and as Christ does his church.

In fact, in the Bible a man providing his wife with food and clothing was seen as part of his marital faithfulness to her and if he failed to provide for her she could be freed from him (divorced from him):

Exodus 21:10-11 states:

“If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.”

And the custom of women spending the majority of their time in or around their homes and taking care of the domestic affairs of the home and their children is not just a tradition either, it is commanded by God.

I Timothy 5:14 states:

“I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.”

And Titus 2:4-5:

“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”

I personally know several young couples who decided before they were married that they wanted to follow the traditional and more importantly biblical model of the husband being the provider and the woman being the homemaker.  And the man does not have to be a doctor or lawyer to make it happen.

I know many factory workers who make no more than 60K a year providing for a wife and family with her at home full time homeschooling the children.  How do they accomplish this seeminingly impossible scenario?

1.  They move out of the cities and suburbs and look for homes deep in rural areas far outside the cities.
2. They choose small, old and affordables homes.
3. They have older used cars and not new cars.
4. They don’t go on expensive vacations.
5. They don’t run up a bunch of credit debit but live only on what they make.
6. Some of them have gardens and grow a lot of fresh produce.

It is possible to reverse the two income trap.  But it will take decades of dedicated young people who love God and want to return to the traditional family model that he established.