Reply to Does SAHM make a difference during infant years?

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "Does SAHM make a difference during infant years? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We talk about SAHM vs WOHM like it's some kind of dichotomy, but it really isn't.

When my first was born, DH was working 60-70 hours/wk, and I was working 50-60.  It was NOT working.  I remember reading articles and going to message boards to see how women did it.  I eventually realized that the "being a working mom is wonderful" articles/posts were NOT from women in my position, but from women who were working PT or had a spouse who had a very flexible schedule or was a SAHD.

I have found, in my own family, in my circle, and reflected back on the internet, that most families do best when both parents, combined, work 80 hours or less every week.  Whether that's two 40 hour jobs, or one person working PT while the other works a more demanding schedule, or one parent staying at home while the other works depends on circumstances.  
 
Now, DH works 50-60 hours/wk, I work 15-30 hours/wk, and we are all much happier.  [/quote]

+1 My choice to stay home was strongly influenced by regularly seeing my coworker calling her husband and begging him to try to keep the baby awake so she could see him when she got home. Our job was a lot of hours + a commute. Looking for a new, flexible, FT job while pg seemed daunting. Instead, I was able to set up some freelancing work and happily did that through two babies and had no trouble finding a FT job ( decent, flexible hours with ability to regularly with at home) when my youngest started school.[/quote]

You were smarter than I was, pp.  
My DH was never guaranteed to be available for daycare pickup (surgery resident), so every day I remember rushing to get out by 6pm so that I could get to the daycare before it closed at 6:30.  All of the things I enjoyed about my job were severely diminished by my need to get everything done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

It didn’t hit me until I had a month where I go out at 4:00 every day, and I realized that over half of the kids at the daycare were already gone by 4:30.

So, they got there in the morning, had breakfast, played outside, had a morning nap, played a little more, lunch, afternoon nap, and home.  
It wasn’t like my child who was there 10+ hours/day.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics