Choosing to be a Stay at Home Mom

When I had gotten pregnant in 2010, we were fairly certain I would be a stay at home mom.  There were a few reasons behind this.

First off, I wasn't working full time.  I had a annual contract for a part time teaching job.  Each year I would get a pink slip and maybe they would offer me a job the following year (maybe not).  So I didn't exactly have job security.

Second, even if I did stay teaching part time, day care is expensive.  Why would I spend a good portion of my paycheck to have someone else take care of my child?  I had a friend who had the same position as I did, and she would tell me that some months her nanny would get more of  her paycheck than she did (some months are light on work days for school breaks).  I know nannies are expensive, but even regular daycare would be pricey for us.

Thirdly, and I think most importantly, we both wanted one of us to be at home with our child.  It's time we can never get back, and it goes by so fast.  I also believe that having at least one of our parents stay at home when we were young affected us.  My dad stayed home with my 3 siblings and me once he retired, and before I was around my mom took care of the kids.  My husband's mom was at home during the day when they were young, later picking up a night job.  We saw the sacrifices that our parents had gone through to raise us, and I believe in giving our daughter the same.

This is Caitlyn, she's definitely worth it!

We don't have a lot of extra cash lying around, we don't go on extravagant trips, we don't have a ton of expensive material stuff (that we don't really need), and I'm okay with that.  We do have what we need.  We both do what we can for our daughter, and it's worth it :).

Side Note: We don't do this completely on our own.  We have help from our family, specifically our parents.  And we're lucky that if my husband and I want to have a night off, they are more than happy to take care of their grandchild.  We have truly been blessed.