Let's Be Honest...

In light of recent articles regarding pregnant working mothers - Yahoo's New CEO Is Pregnant - I've really been questioning my motives for continuing to work.  If you are a first time mom, this has probably been on your mind for a while.

There's a couple of factors that I think weigh in when you try to decide - What Kind of Mom am I?

• Do I want to stay home?  This is probably one of the hardest things to consider, and depends a lot on how you were raised, what type of job environment you currently work in, and how you value yourself as a person.  For me, I grew up with a stay at home mom of 4, I was the oldest.  My mother was fantastic, the epitomy of all things "stay at home."  She baked, cooked, cleaned, taught (we began homeschooling when I was... 14?) and I still admire her for the strength she had to do so, especially with my dad in the military and deployed often.  So, there is a part of me that wants to provide this type of childhood (and not miss out on it) for my children.  But there is also another part of me that remembers the stress she went through, being around kids all day long (don't get me wrong, some people LOVE kids, but I value my adult interaction time).  Granted, I only have 1.5 children, but I'm just not sure me and my little monster ;) would get along all day every day.  I do still feel the pull to be home, but I love my job and want to keep at it.
• Can I stay home and our family remain financially stable? This is the biggie for a lot of families nowadays - is staying home even an option?  Remember when you are weighing the pros and cons to really dig deep to come up with all costs associated with staying home/working.  Remember you will need someone to take care of your children while you work, depending on where they go - there may be extra costs such as gas.  Often, daycares do not allow sick children (ie., What will you do if your child is sick, take off from work?  How will your employer handle that?).  Does your employer require a certain level of dress (ie., will you be able to shop for suits from discount stores or is Nordstrom the norm?).  Just some things to consider if you said Yes to the first question.

So - the whole reason I even headed in this direction was to talk about cost savings.  Unless you are Mrs. Yahoo CEO (see above article link), you are probably working to stay this much ahead of where you would be if you stayed home.  And in that case, cost savings is always on the mind.  Stay tuned - maybe I'll actually get around to posting about what I do in less than a week!