Why I'm a Stay at Home Mom

When my husband and I got married we got pregnant right away. We were very excited, and a little nervous. One of our biggest concerns we had was how we were going to be able to financially support our child. I had always wanted to stay home with my children if I got lucky enough to have any. But when I found I was pregnant, I had just started a part time job working in the base barber shop. The pay was decent and I loved the work. I was also enjoying the "me money" that I was making every week in tips. I just wasn't sure if I was ready to give all of that up so soon.

Like most parents do, we started trying to cut back on expenses during the pregnancy. Money that I would normally spent on myself before, now went towards nursery furniture and cute little baby items. I quickly forgot what I was spending all that "me money" on anyway. I had a new passion:shopping for baby stuff!

While we were shopping for baby, we also started looking around for daycare. We were amazed at the prices! We live, and both work on base, so our options were limited. To take the baby to daycare off base would have been at least an additional 30 miles a day and we just didn't want to do that. So we only looked on base.

The first place we checked was the Child Development Center. The facilities there are nice, but they don't offer a part time schedule. When we did the math on what we would spend per hour that our child was actually there, it came to nearly a whopping $20/hour. There was no way we were going to give someone else that kind of money to raise our precious child. We checked out a few home daycares, too, but couldn't find one that we liked with reasonable rates. We decided then that we would not be putting our child into a regular daycare.

A few months before the baby was due, my husband got switched to night shift. This was just the solution we had been looking for. I could continue working three or four six hour days a week while my husband stayed home with the baby. It worked great for nearly five months, but then my husband got transferred back to his old day shift job.

We tried taking the baby to stay at home mom neighbor for a few weeks. It worked out fine and her rates were reasonable. But then disaster struck: she had to have surgery on her ankle. She moved back in with her family, about 800 miles away, to recover. That's when we decided I would be a stay at home mom.

I still work two Saturdays a month at the barber shop, but the rest of the time I stay at home with my son. It's been this way since October and I love it. I love watching my son learn new things and hearing all of his new words. It's nice to know that I choose what he is exposed to. The only thing I really miss is adult interaction. But I can still pick up the phone and get that.

In some ways I wish I would have started staying home with him sooner. But then I probably wouldn't appreciate as much. It really is the best "job" I've ever had. The monetary pay may be nonexistent, but the benefits are excellent!