I am a full time student and I work per diem. I just do what I gotta do to take care of my family-

ima sahm but i enjoy my time because in the future ill be able to say i watched my son do everything for the first time. when you are working all day you miss out. but dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with working, your right you do need to provide for you daughter someway.

I work full time. I always have.

I put in my time and then I rush home and i cram as much as possible into each weekend and I take vacation days all the time to spend with my son.

I cook on the weekends so that week nights are easier, I do laundry all week so that it’s not piled up for saturday, I clean house little by little all week long, and I grocery shop on my lunch breaks.

It’s doable. It’s not easy, but it’s doable.

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It’s hard not to hit that thumbs down when the answer sounds like gloating.

We working moms ARE envious and we’d also like to stay at home with our kids…but we also want them to have food and health insurance and clothes….

So while I can go without Prada shoes…baby still needs his regular doctor visits….and those cost money..

So we work.

And tend to be a little sensitive when someone responds with “I put my kids first, that’s why I stay home” or something similar ….as if we weren’t out here sacrificing to put our kids needs first.

We’re all just trying to raise our kids and taking digs at each other doesn’t make us better parents.

Working for the next 2 weeks then parental leave and stay home with my 3 year-old and his new brother. So far I balanced, I like the challenge plus I find housework soooo boring and repetitive that I prefer someone else to do it!

I’m due next month, and I work 35-40 hours a week now. After my son is born, I’ll be working from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Every day but sunday. Its not a ton, but my hubby and I can’t afford for me to just stay home. We will be taking shifts with the baby. He watches him from 8 to 2, then I watch him from 3 to whenever. Daycare is so expensive, if I kept working full time, it would just cover the cost of weekly daycare payments. And I’d rather have time with my little boy.

i work full time, have 4 children (one is my stepson) and i take my 5 month old to work with, have since he was 8 weeks.
i recruit my kids to do chores and take responsibility for their messes, they are great kids. my husband helps also, or feels my wrath. its up to him- :0)

I’m a working mom too-but i’m on maternity leave right now, and my family and I are moving for 4 months soon (for my husbands job) before I’ll have a chance to go back. Makes me sad, because I honestly love my job, and I miss it right now.

I work at a K-12 school, teaching ages 12-17, and usually work from 8am-3.15pm. But depending on my schedule, some days I may leave at 1pm, and other days not arrive until 10am, or have a free day etc.

I’ve never found balancing work and family too difficult, because i’m a better mom when i’m happy and motivated, and my job gives me that motivation.
My two eldest are usually at school while i’m at work (they attend the same school I teach at) and my 3yo goes to his family daycare. If I have a day off or leave early then he usually stays home with me.
When we get home the kids have snacks, and then usually go play outside, help me with dinner or do chores and homework, watch some tv, read, or go to their activities.
If my husband is home early he makes dinner, if not I make dinner, and we usually eat when he gets home. Then we usually sit around together talking, watching tv, reading, bath time etc.
Once the younger kids are in bed, I tidy up, and usually just chill out with my husband and eldest while I finish anything I need to do, and do things like mark work, and write theory sheets, while playing around on YA too.
Weekends we try and do something all together, it can be anything from going on a long drive to go to some attraction, or just visiting the zoo or aquarium.

Being on mat leave right now, i’m a lot less busy, but I like our normally busy routine, it seems to give me more energy

SAHM.

I used to work while my son stayed at my mother-in-law’s house. She would babysit him while both my hubby and I were at work. I became pregnant with my daughter when my son was just 8 months old. When he was 9 months old, he had a massive seizure and was hospitalized and diagnosed with epilepsy.

I had planned on going back to work after I had my daughter. When my daughter was 5 days old, my mother-in-law came over to “help out”. I caught her physically abusing my son when she was changing his diaper!!! We had suspicions of abuse before, but now it was confirmed.

I decided then, that she was no longer allowed to be near my kids. So now, I had no one to watch them. It didn’t make sense for me to keep working because all of my paycheck would go to daycare (I only made $9 an hour). So I decided to be a SAHM. I love it!

I am a SAHM…trust me it is alot of work…while my husband works his butt off making the household money i cook and clean and keep the children safe and happy.

wow your right someone is hating on mommies that stay home and raise thier kids. look guys i dont have a problem with momswho have to work, not everyone is fortunate enough to be financially able to be a stay at home mom. but it is our choice to raise our children instead of letting someone else do it for us. and beleive it or not some of us have otherthings to do during our down time…take me for example….when my kids are in school and my house is clean i am at my mothers house helping out by cooking cleaning and caring for my disabled grandmother who lives with my mom. my mother has to work to pay thier bills so i go help when i can for free… my Sister in law also helps out when i cant. but i guess it is easier for you “working moms” to thumbs down us and decide if we are not out making money instead of being thier for our kids we are lazy lazy people who need to be insulted!

I worked, for several years in between my kids; not FT, but I worked- because I loved it. Unfortunately, my husband did *not*, and we also wanted more children. It became unmanageable, and my husband does provide a very good income alone, and beyond that just wanted his kids to have a SAHM. I finally agreed- because it was very hard to leave them, and I was tired of feeling ‘torn’, and because my profession is not going anywhere, but my children are.
That said, I don’t think there is anything wrong with mothers who do choose to work (aside from those who ‘must’, I mean those who ‘choose’)- it is a woman’s personal decision and she must do what is best for her family- which amounts to what is best for herself. A mother who unwillingly gives up her career because she is pressured to be a SAHM is not going to be the best for her family, if that is not where she wants to be.

As to those who think SAHMs are ’spongers’, screw them. I have pursued a thorough education. I have excelled professionally. And I can tell you that being a SAHM is, for me, the most challenging job I have ever had. The physical demands alone sometimes overwhelm me (part of the reason I ultimately chose to SAHM, is because I have some chronic fatigue issues thanks to a funky neuro system), and there are mornings when I would love to get dressed for work and drop off the babies at daycare, lunch for an hour, read a book in the sun on my ‘lunch break’, blast music with the windows down as I go down the freeway. But those mornings are few, and I’m realistic, which is why I have found peace in doing what I do know, and knowing I can do otherwise, later.
But for women who can’t find peace in it, it just won’t work, and won’t benefit the children, and therefore I don’t know WHY those with a ‘parental agenda’ must lecture working moms to just ‘quit and stay at home’. Not every woman is the same, and not every mom is the same, just like not every baby is. Some do wonderfully in daycare, some don’t. It’s up to each couple/ mother to find the balance that works to keep THEIR OWN family happy and healthy.
And if you work from 7-5 and then keep the house clean or even pay a maid to, cook dinner, do the laundry or even just bundle it up and send it out, you’re not going to find ME putting you down for it- you have my full respect. Just like with a SAHM, it’s all about balance. In all honesty, my verdict is still out on what’s ‘easier’. Neither is ‘easy’. I think like anything else, you just have to prioritize, and find out what works and what doesn’t, and what can wait and what cannot, and go from there.

do the best you can because if you didn’t work than you would be struggling to provide for your child.

I hate the way people are so judgmental on this subject. No one has to right to tell others how to run their home. What suits one family might not suit another so ignore all these comments as long as your happy with the way your household is run. When I was at home all day with my son, I drove myself crazy. I felt like I didn’t have a life of my own and i hated having to ask my partner for money so I went back to work 4 days a week. Things got expensive and I found myself working more a nd more to pay the bills and ended up working 70 hours some weeks. That also drove me crazy. I hated not being there for my son so I sat down, worked out how much I needed to earn minimum and without the childcare costs i worked out I could waitress 3 days a week doing double shifts so I was still working full time hour s but having 4 days off with my son. The extra tips meant more money but less hours away from my son. Now he spends 1 whole day with hubby, one whole day at my sisters and half an day with one set of grandparents an then goes to bed at home being looked after by his other grandparents who live with us. I have a housework/grocery shopping/pay bills day, a play date with my friends who have kids day, a day as a family and then just a day to do nothing. Also every now and again I finish work before the bars close so I go for a drink with friends or me and hubby have a date night so i have the best of both worlds at the moment. When he goes to school I’ll probably get a job that fits around school times tho so I get as much time with him as possible.