Ok so its that horrible day at work. You walk in late because you spent your morning dealing with on crisis after another only to look down and notice you have two different shoes on and baby spit up on your shoulder. You go to the bathroom try to clean off the spit up with those awesome brown paper towels (you all know what I mean) and hope no one notices the mismatched shoes as you sneak into that meeting you are late for. Hope you can get done your work quickly so you can leave on time to pick up you're older child from school before picking up the younger one from daycare. How much easier would it be to just stay home and take care of your children? Internally, you start running the numbers ok without childcare and if we cancel cable, get rid of one car, cut our food bill, stop going out to dinner it totally do able.
Maybe its just the parenting groups/message boards that I am apart of but more and more I'm seeing a trend where working mothers are trying to make the jump to staying at home. While if you can responsibly stay at home, I say go for it not judgement here, however the advice being given to those women is downright irresponsible!!
Some of the advice I've seen recently is, to drain your savings and retirement accounts you can always save money later in life and you're kids will only be small once. More advice is to sell your house or break a lease and move into a cheaper area (worse school districts and higher crime) because you being with your kids will balance it out. Borrow money from family and friends, they'll understand and want to help. Declare bankruptcy, move in with family, cancel cable internet ect. and sell a car. Another poster said to re-enroll in school online to defer student loan payments and borrow a little "extra" for living expenses.
What are we teaching out children if these are the decisions we are making and advising others to make? The message I'm receiving is to look to others to take care of you're responsibilities for you so you can do what you WANT. Is it really responsible to put your child into an environment that you were not comfortable with to start with just because you want to stay at home. I also want to raise the question what happens if there is an emergency and you have no savings?
What is the plan if something happens to the family to the remaining breadwinner? With all that being said, if you can be a stay at home parent without negatively impacting your family go for it. There is no right answer when it comes to raising your children other than teaching them to do the right thing and be a good person. I'm afraid, however, for my children's generation, my generation is already notorious for huge amounts of credit card debt and people living beyond their means. Education is being valued less and less. My hope is that my children learn from these mistakes and don't make same mistakes of my generation.
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