Weasley Economics

[historygrrl1]

No: HPFGUIDX 46223

*This is my first message ever, but I've been lurking for a long 
time.  Hi!*

It makes perfect sense to me that Maolly Weasley does not (or does 
not appear to) work outside her home.  There are a number of reasons 
for her to do so, and they're not very different from the reasons 
women in the real world do the same thing.  

For example, she's had 7 children.  Factoring in the time for 6 
pregnanies and allowing time for those children to reach school age 
(11 yoa) would have put her outside the conventional 9 to 5 work 
force for long stretches of time.  Child care costs for so many 
children would likely have been so huge that it would have made more 
financial sense for Molly not to work outside the home and instead 
devote herself to caring for her children.  For 6 years at a stretch, 
between the time Ginny was born and Percy went off to school, she had 
5 children to care for year round.  Even if she had the 
qualifications to command a high salary, paying someone to take care 
of 5 children would probably have meant that she lost money working, 
rather than earning it.    

For all we know, Molly does work during the school year.  The fact 
that she doesn't during the summer suggests that she may be doing 
seasonal work, or that she may be self-employed - I don't know what 
she'd be doing exactly.  We know she knits.  Maybe she sells some of 
her work as well as giving each child a sweater for Christmas.   

There were no dress robes to be handed down to Ron because dress 
robes hadn't been on the school lists since the previous tri-wizard 
tournament held over a century before GoF.  Knowing that more 
children were on the way, but not that a Triwizard tournament was 
coming up, the Weasleys would have chosen to save their money rather 
than buying unnecessary clothes.

I like the suggestion that she was an Auror once.   

"Historygirl1"