This is a question most parents ask themselves before they have their first child. We have grown up in a society that puts so much pressure on both parents to work that we forget about the benefits of being home with our children.
I am a stay at home mom who has a husband that works 5 days a week. I have found that by staying home with my children that I have been able to watch them grow and see them learn all the new adventures in life as they learn to walk and talk. I was like most parents with my first child and went back to school and then to work after I graduated. I worked 5 days a week and always felt like I was missing out on seeing him learn all the new things he learned. Instead my mother got to watch him learn these new things and became almost like a second mother to him.
Since I have had my second son I have been a stay at home mom. I have found it more fulfilling to be able to watch him learn all of the new things that children learn throughout their young lives. I feel now like I missed so much with my oldest son that I don't want to miss a thing when it comes to my children anymore. Now I find everyday to be a new adventure with my children and don't have to worry about leaving them at daycare or my parents. This cuts the cost of daycare out of my budget and allows me more time with my children. Although I still miss working I have found that staying home has made me feel more fulfilled when it comes to my family life.
As I was growing up, like a lot of other children , my parents worked and left us with babysitters all the time just to make an honest living. Yet while they were children their mother's stayed home with them and their father's worked. This was always a life that I had wanted for my family. I grew up always wanting to be able to stay home with my children and take care of the house hold while my husband worked. But when I had my first child that seemed like a silly dream. It almost seemed impossible with the high cost of living. It was because of that, that I decided to go to work. Now with all of the new stay at home opportunities out there it is more feasible for one parent to be able to stay home and take care of the children while the other goes to work.
Although going to work at a real job seems almost like a vacation, I would not trade my time with my children for a 9-5 job. I would rather stay home with them and experience the world through their eyes then to go to a real job and miss out on all of their new adventures.
So If you are trying to determine whether or not to stay home with your new family or to go to work. Just think of all of the new adventures in their lives that you could be missing out on and then think of all of the stay at home opportunities out their and see which one you would rather do? I know for me that I would rather search out a stay at home job and be able to spend time with my children then to go to a regular 9-5 job and miss out on their new adventures in their lives.
