In these turbulent financial times, We are one of the
few families who can have a parent staying home with the children, until they
are ready for school.
We did not start out with this being the plan, because
when our son was 8 months old, I went out to work, only to have him get sick at
the nursery a couple days after and because I had to take time off to tend to
him, I lost the job. This made us decide that I would stay home with him until
he was school age. Our daughter came and because of this past experience, we chose
to make the same decision.
So how can you afford to do this, when times
are so hard? you may be eager to ask. That is a fair question I might add, so here is the answer -We
are able to do this, not because my husband makes a lot of money, but because with a
lot of practice we have now grasped very well, how to live on a budget and
further, we owe a lot of gratitude to my in-laws as they unselfishly decided to
give of themselves, to have us stay with them since our return back home, until
we decide on our next move, which should be soon. I must add that this has its
challenges too, because we all love our own space to be ourselves, instead of
always wondering if the people you are with are tired of you yet. Thank
goodness, if our in-laws even feel this way, they have never made us aware, and
the trade off for them is that they have their grandchildren around them at all
times. I know saying goodbye when the time comes will be very hard.
Another psychological issue associated with the
decision to be a stay at home parent, is guilt. I do suffer much guilt at
times, especially when the finances decide that they will not be subjected to
severe stretching and bending to be adequate. Thank goodness I have found a
very effective way of dealing with this - I put things into perspective – as a
result of my staying home with the children, I am able to save my family
nursery fee for the baby, after school care fees for our son, doctor fees,
because babies do get sick a lot when they are in nurseries and not to mention
the cost associated with me going out to work – clothes, lunch etc. When I do
the math, this is greater than or equal to a salary that I would take home. I
must admit that I do get very tired at times and wish I was out working, just
to get a break, but I am soon thrust back into the reality of this perspective.
I therefore no longer suffer any guilt from being a
stay at home parent, instead I am grateful everyday that I have the opportunity of spending such quality time with my children, something a lot of
parents with young children wished they could do and now look forward with
great anticipation to what I will do, when our daughter goes off to school next
year.
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