Stay at Home Mom Series

On the drive home from New Jersey, after I filled up my flat tire, I was thinking up what I should write about this week.  What came to mind is a conversation I had at the shower I went to this weekend.  I had the pleasure of meeting a very nice 32 year old mom of 4!  She looked extremely young an when I asked her if she had any children, the last thing I expected her to say was 4.  Anyway, we got to talking about the sacrifices an choices you make when you have children.  She was finally going back to school after staying home to raise her children for the past 11 years.

A lot of the times when you have children you have to choose between two things that are very important to you.  For instance, your career, or caring for your child full time.  For me, this was not an easy decision, but in the en, one that came very naturally.  I went pretty far in my pregnancy thinking that as soon as Nick was born, I would take a 6 week leave (of the imaginary job I would one day have) and then return to work happy to be building my career.  This was easier said then done.  Of course, there was the fact that I couldn’t fin a job that I actually enjoyed going to every day, but also because leaving him to be with someone else every day was so much harder then I expected.

I would go some days of seeing my son only 30 minutes.  I would treasure every single second that I got to spend with him.  We would try to keep him up just a little later at night, and I wouldn’t mind holding him for an hour trying to get him to fall asleep.  At the same time, though, I was completely miserable with my job and struggling to reconcile being a mom an working.  Trying to find time to do the dishes, or go grocery shopping was becoming the ultimate struggle.  Eventually, the combination of my horrible job, an desire to spend more time with Nick wore on me and we made the best decision for our family. 

There are definitely days where I wonder if we made the right choice, but every time the answer is most definitely.  Nick is flourishing and learning so much.  I am happy, I enjoy my role in the home, an I am sure my husband is happier that I am happier.  I still get to stay involve in my career, building experience, and hope to get back into it full force when our family is older.  But for now, I am enjoying music classes, Gymboree, play dates, and all the other things that go along with being a mom.  Anyway,  I thought it would be good to write about staying at home this week.  Maybe write about some of the decisions that go into it, the struggles, the joys etc.  So stay tuned.  Tomorrow I will talk about the decision, an some of the ways to decide if it is something your family could consider and what to expect. 

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