When we first married I was a 5th grade teacher. It was a great job, but also really stressful. I became pregnant after we had been married just 3 months. I had already signed my teaching contract for the next year. There was a steep contract breaking fee, but it didn’t matter. My husband was in grad school and I was the only income producer in our family. I had to work.
This was not how I planned to be a mother. Read the rest….
I hit the “read more for staying home” and received a “nothing found” message. 🙁 Please re-link. Thanks!
Fixed it 🙂
Love that PS advise! We lived on my income instead of his, allowing my husband to grow his business until the kiddos came along. The first few years were TIGHT, but in the end the investment in his work paid off. We may never live the life of a two income family, but we are very happy today!
I can honestly say working outside the home and being home with kids, home schooling, and running a home business are all difficult. It’s also encouraging to see the growing number of Dads choosing to be home with kids as well. Parenting is truly a team effort, and when my husband was able to be the one working from home and/or part-time and helping our child with special needs through therapy my strength with RA could not handle, my job and his ability to be home were a blessing. Now that we’ve traded places, we can relate to each other on how difficult both working positions–away and at home–can be. Traditional gender roles aren’t always the answer–it’s really turning to God for direction and finding what works for your family. Even now, our oldest son has a super strong bond with Dad he gained in those early years when he was home with him. I’d never planned on home schooling, yet find great joy now in teaching our youngest through pre-school time at home. Even through tough financial times of being business owners and having commission-based income, God always provides our needs and blesses us. When we transitioned a few months of both of us working and using childcare, that was far harder than knowing either of us were the ones instructing and raising our children.