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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It seems like most women stay home during the younger childhood years to provide childcare.

I think a better option is to keep working and save for retirement and completely quit working once you’re close to 50.

The time value of money and older kids need a parent present way more. I feel bad for moms who quit when kids are young and think returning to work will be easy.

I personally wouldn’t quit unless I were comfortable never working again. I know way too many women who quit after baby one to never return. Their finances are a bit limited and they have strange reasons why they can’t return to work (like afterschool activities). [/quote]

I’m the pp who said DH had to earn enough for me to stay home. If pp can get over that number, which she seems to think is too high, I believe my experience is relevant because my kids were the same age as OP’s kids when I stopped working.

I worked until my older two kids were in elementary and preschool. I naively thought I no longer needed a FT nanny since both my kids were in school (PK and kindergarten). I put both my kids in aftercare. The after school activities were really difficult for us to get to. Sick days, teacher work days, school breaks, middle of the day random parties, muffins with moms, Halloween parades, half days, snow days. It was a lot. We tried many types of PT help. High quality PT help is hard to get even when you offer a high rate. I tried to hire a PT babysitter, driver, tutor, swim instructor, housekeeper and cook. I was putting together an ad for the summer and decided I wanted to do everything in my job description. At the time, DH got a more demanding job that also paid double.

I ended up having another kid and Covid happened so I have been home. The after school activities and breaks isn’t an excuse. I have 3 kids and 3 different schools. All three kids do multiple activities and sports. Middle school private school sport games start at 230 so if you want to attend your kid’s games, you need to be available in the middle of the day. Kids are off after finals. I’m picking up another kid today at noon. When I stopped working, I had 2 kids who played soccer one day per week each and it was so hard. Now my three children have sports/activities 5-6 times per week EACH.

There was a thread recently about raising winners. My three kids are all thriving academically and socially. My oldest couldn’t even read when I stopped working. I didn’t have the time, energy or patience to focus on him when I was working. I’m not saying working moms can’t juggle. Maybe my kids would have turned out the same if I had stayed working. [/quote]

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