Sylviatob wrote:
I heard somewhere on here, some time in the first quarter of 2008.
But if you hang around here, the Higher Power of the forum will tell you all!
shhhhh....Midnight, it's a secret. LOL. 
Sylviatob wrote:
shhhhh....Midnight, it's a secret. LOL.
Secrets should not be posted in public forums
haulingthescoreup wrote:
Not a flame, but a reply.
A lot of this comes from the very different realities of today versus 30 or more years ago. For many couples back then, it would never have occurred to them to make the spouse (read: wife) a joint user. It was a REALLY different time back then. As a complete side-bar, I was 17 years old before I knew ANYONE whose parents were divorced. This would be somewhere around 1971. You simply must be willing to understand how things were then, and how they were different from now.
The reality is, that for a lot of these AU accounts, it was in fact the non-employed spouse who did all the work to keep the accounts paid on time. I am absolutely not discounting the work of the income-earner, I'm now one myself, but until you have lived in a household with only one income and tried to run things, you don't realize what goes on in terms of when do we get groceries, when do we fill prescriptions, when do we pay bills, and so forth.
Bringing home the check IS a big deal, but it is only the beginning. Running a household is a business, and it means balancing the income against the outgo, and staying on top of everything, and forecasting what might be coming up. Bunches of employed spouses (read: husbands) came home from work and handed their checks over to the little woman, who then made sure that everything was taken care of. The women (mostly) who did this have ABSOLUTELY earned their credit histories and lengths.
I am pretty negative on the subject of people getting credit from their AU status from when they were just kids in the household, with well-meaning parents trying to help them get a good start. Please note that this was according to the rules of the time and perfectly legitimate. But I am death on those who have purchased the credit histories of perfect strangers in order to improve their credit reports, and those who prostituted themselves in supplying their reports. Their actions have completely screwed over a lot of women (mostly) who have done their part in keeping their households going, and their AU status was completely kosher according to the standards of the time.
This is VERY MUCH a phenomenon of the time, and until you take the time to understand how things were at the time, you will not understand the validity of the AU status. I think that everyone, especially women, should honor what their mothers and grandmothers did. And this is from someone who joined NOW (National Organization of Women) in 1972, and worked for the ERA, spending hours and hours on the phone, and has proudly written Ms. in front of her name for a long, long time. A lot of opportunities that are now available to women have resulted from the efforts of previous generations, and I don't think that many younger women have take the time to understand what their predecessors went through. Do you have any idea what it was like to endlessly be called "honey," and expected to put up with butt grabs and boob grabs, and feel grateful for having the job? I don't think that most young women under the age of 30 can even begin to understand what it was like.
Just because things have been done the way that men have done them, doesn't mean that they are a good idea, and frequently, they are completely awful. Any fool can earn a paycheck. It's a whole different thing to be able to raise kids, keep everyone feeling validated, stay on top of everyone's physical, mental, and emotional status, and keep a household going. It is one of the most disrespectful things that have EVER been done to women to put the status of homemaker on the back burner, and to remove her right to be recognized as an equal partner in her husband's credit status.
Signed, a raving feminist, and proud of it!
In your argument, you state that the unemployed spouse has earned that credit history but where is the accountability? If the "household" goes belly-up, shouldn't both parties be held responsible?
I have to admit, I felt a little offended that you would assume I (as a young woman) did not appreciate what my foremothers did for me in terms of the rights and privaleges I have today. With that being said, I would hope that you would appreciate the fact that I, who works full time, goes to school part time, and raises a 9 month old by myself would be a little perturbed at the fact that there are people out there mooching (not everyone but you know what I mean) off their SO's, parents' credit histories.
I might have a measely score but I da** sure earned it myself!