Before having my baby, my plan was to go back to work after my 18-month Maternity Leave, and put my baby in daycare during the day.
I greatly underestimated how attached my baby and I would be to each other.
After having my baby, I struggle to leave her even for a short appointment, let alone the whole day. I have no desire to be apart from her for any portion of the day or night. Also, I want to breastfeed well beyond 18 months, and my body doesn't respond well to a pump - my baby is so much better at removing milk. Even if I could pump, the thought of sitting in a room at work and pumping, instead of feeding my baby directly, makes me very sad. I would probably be crying at work on a daily basis. I honestly don't know how women go back to work so soon in the states. I feel so bad for them, knowing most don't have a choice, and have to be apart from their babies so early. It's truly heartbreaking.
The obvious challenge with trying to become a stay-at-home Mom is the financial aspect. I've been trying to come up with a side-hustle or two to make some extra money. Luckily, my husband makes a lot more money than me, and we built up savings before our baby was born, so it might be possible for me to leave my job.
As of right now, no official decision has been made. I still have my job to go back to after my Maternity Leave, and we're on multiple daycare waitlists. We're still working out the logistics to see if it is possible for me to become a stay-at-home Mom. It would be difficult for me to leave my job because I like the people I work with, and it took me so long to get my permanent position, but on the other hand, there are aspects of the job that I'm not crazy about, and it might be interesting to do something different down the line.
One of the first things we did was creating a budget to track our income and expenses. We then tried to cut spending as must as possible (this is still a work in progress), and continued tracking each month's actual income and expenses. We are trying to get to a point where there would be a slight surplus from his income alone (and the child care benefit), after all our necessary expenses.
Update: Since writing the first part of this blog post, I have quit my job! I am beyond excited to be home with my baby girl everyday!
We discovered that there was a decent surplus on only his income, as long as we don't do any crazy spending. Me staying home makes our days so much easier - we get more sleep and more downtime, and we both get to see so much more of our little girl this way ❤.
This was the right choice for us, and it is very exciting, but I also totally support Moms who go back to work out of necessity or because they like their jobs, or a combination of the two.
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