Kara Sweet,
That's a tough personal call to make. I stayed at home with my daughter for nearly her full first year of life. It was wonderful and I loved watching her grow daily. Since entering the work force again, I have enjoyed being in a work atmosphere and the adult company it provides. At the same time, I do sometimes wonder what I am missing out on by leaving my daughter with someone else.

You can always go back to work and see how you like it. If it's not something you decide to stick with, you can feel like you gave it your best shot and later decide it's not for you. It is different for each person. For many, it is a financial decision that keeps them in the workforce.

Finding a job that you love will certainly help you feel like your work is worth the time you will spend apart from your child.

being that I'm in the music business, my job is not family friendly.

we too are currently trying to figure out a plan to where I will be able to try out a new career as a stay at home mother. with living costs and daycare as expensive as they are in our Los Angeles county - I would basically be working just to pay someone to watch my newborn son, which makes me sick to think about...

good luck - hopefully it works out for the best of everyone!

I have 3 children and 1 on the way and I have always worked. While I am happy, I only do it b/c I HAVE to work. I am so incredibly envious of stay-at-home moms. I hate being away from my children all day. Now my youngest is about to start kindergarten and I am starting all over again. They say the first 3-5 years are the most critical in your child's development & I wish with all my heart I could be at home with them. So I think it is a personal decision but I regret not being able to stay home with them. It's not like I miss events or I'm never home...I put in my 40 hours and run straight home but still. I have to try not to think about it and try to be content with what I have and with my situation. But if you have the opportunity to stay home with your baby, I would try it for as long as you can. Hope that helps a little.
xoxo

Thanks for all of your comments. They help me way out the pros and cons of the situation. I still would have to wait and see what happens in November, but I'm leaving work on July 15th, to do somewhat of a trial run of staying at home and see how the financial part of the decision will work out. Right now it is just my husband, my puppy, and myself and since a majority of our finances include gas (which living above my husband's job is starting to look like a perk) we can see how removing a second income will play out for us. Hopefully everything will go fine. Wish me luck

Wishing you luck!!!

Thanks dear for sharing your article but i like to say that it was found that even those mothers who work more than 45 hours a week benefit from much higher levels of life satisfaction than full-time mums.

This finding counters the long held assumption that mothers would be more pleased if they stayed home with their children.

It was concluded three years ago by a research conducted by the Centre for Policy Studies that almost half of the mothers were working only because they needed money.

The popularity of David Camerons promise to offer tax breaks to married couples to help mothers stay at home was also doubted by the researchers

mayes
working mums