People go back to work after having a baby for plenty of reasons. For me, it was because I wanted to. I was one of the “lucky ones,” because I basically got to choose my hours, I only worked part time, I had a great job and coworkers that I liked, and I didn’t even have to put my daughter in daycare. My mother in law watched her.
For me, work is a lifeline. It gave me a much needed respite from the early days of “feed, cry, nap, repeat,” that my daughter seemed to be in. I didn’t feel as much like a sleep deprived dairy cow, and more like the person I used to be.
I felt like it made me a better mom. I got just enough time and enough of a break to be able to miss my daughter and appreciate all the time we did have together. And I got to have adult conversations occasionally.
All at the low, low cost of having grandma watch my daughter.
But then my family moved to Texas, and all of a sudden I had some decisions to make.
I needed to choose between putting my daughter in daycare and keeping my job, or being a stay-at-home mom full time.
Practically speaking, to have my daughter in daycare would be very expensive and I would have to start working a lot more for that to make sense. My husband and I also didn’t feel comfortable having our daughter in a daycare. (No judgement on those who do – it’s just not for us.)
So I decided on the stay-at-home mom route.
I realize I’m still incredibly lucky to have this choice at all, and not need to continue working for economic reasons, but was still a really hard choice for me to give up doing something I liked.
I’m going to miss working. And I’m also more than a little concerned about being with a toddler 24/7. Am I going to forget how to form complete sentences? Will I survive on a diet of rejected carrots and sandwich crusts?
Stay tuned to watch my slow descent into child-induced madness.
Or hey, you never know. I might love it. Right?