Parenthood is about sacrifices. You sacrifice your time, your job, your life to raise a child. You set aside your own needs, like sleep and meals, to keep your child happy.
One topic that comes up once you have a child no matter what is work – When you’ll go back and if you’ll go back. Being a stay at home mom (SAHM) is something a lot of women decide to do after having children, but many decide to go back to work as well. I don’t know if I’d call it a hot topic, but a lot of women I personally know have opted for the former.
For me, going back to work is what I want to do. It may make me sound like a horrible mom, but I actually miss work; I wouldn’t give Isla up for the world and I definitely DO NOT regret having her, but I honestly miss being at the office. I miss interacting with people, watching news happen, being part of a team; not that I’m not a part of a team at home – Kyle and I make an awesome team, but you get what I mean. Luckily, I’ve managed to find childcare (already!) for Isla when it’s time for me to go back to work. And it may sound selfish, but I’m already looking forward to getting back to work, not to escape Isla, but because I love my job. By no means am I saying that I don’t want to raise my kids. I believe that you can raise your kids and have a job at the same time, it just takes some fine-tuning in life.
I’ll clarify that having Isla was not a mistake – I wanted children and knew that I’d have to make some sacrifices in order to have them. I knew that if I wasn’t able to find affordable childcare when my maternity leave was over I’d most likely have to put my career on hold because let’s face it – childcare is expensive and going back to a part-time job where more than an entire paycheque would go towards care seems ridiculous financially. Putting my career on hold would mean that I stay at home and care for my kids until they were going to school and it would be possible for me to go back to work. It would be a tough decision, but a necessary one.
So for now, it’s back to work for me when the time comes. I won’t be skipping with joy into the office, but I don’t think I’ll be sobbing in the car because I’ve left my baby with someone else. I just hope I’ll be able to happily balance work and being a mom.
If you chose to go back to work or chose to be a SAHM – What made you decide?
If you don’t have kids yet – What do you *think* you’ll do, since what we think and what we end up doing sometimes differs?
