Stay at home or Work?

[sweeps]

Can you explain how that would be a good sign? I am not getting it.. thanks.

I'm guessing the neighborhood kids were always playing there, wearing away the grass...

[Snowgirl]

Well, while we don't have kids yet, this is something I feel very strongly about, and we already know that we'll both continue working. We are both engineers with good salaries, so cutting any of those would roughly mean a 50% cut in income, but most, we'd die staying home with kids all day. Even if I love children, and hope very much we can succeed in having one, staying with them 24h would drive me crazy. While I'm no mean an aggressive career woman, I need the challenge & reward of my work, and the work friendship. It would also be a waste of my degree to stay home, so much effort for nothing in the end. I didn't need an engineering degree to raise kids.

I also believe in the philosophy "It takes a village to raise a child", and daycare is the modern equivalent of that. In the earlier times, some women would take care of kids while others would do cooking , washing, picking fruit. There was no super women cooking, cleaning, feeding, disciplining, stimulating her children. This super kid centered SAHM is a very modern American phenomenon, even 80 years ago the moms would mainly do housework, and not spend much time with children. For me, the daycare worker, the caterer, the cleaning woman are all part of my modern village, and my personal task is to go work on computers! They have their speciality, are trained to do it, and can do a much better job at it than I would.

[sagegirl]

My DD (now age 10) started daycare when she was 8 weeks old. At the time, it was purely financial--we had no savings, credit card debt, and were not making that much money (no college degrees). When my son was born 4 years ago, we had a little money in savings and my hubby was making a decent income with benefits, so I decided to stay home with him. I was a SAHM for 18 months. I went back to work, partly for financial reasons, and partly because I missed working--I have worked since age 15.

My daughter is school age now and my son is in daycare. He has a great preschool and I don't feel like "someone else is raising him". I feel good about my choice to go back to work and I feel good about the people I chose to watch him while I am at work. Someday, maybe when he starts kindergarten, I would love it if either I or hubby could be home when they got out of school.

[terri77]

My mom was a SAHM and I know that she feels that is best for a child. If I have children I would like to continue working. I enjoy having a career and all that I have put into it. I also would love my children and want them to give them everything that they need.

I don't think it is possible to have it all and women are killing themselves trying. I don't know where my sacrifices will come, but hopefully my husband and I would work together for the benefit of our family to support each other at home and away from home.

[LuckyJB]

be an entreprenuer