Month after month you’ve planned, prepared, prayed, and anticipated what your life would be like once your little bundle arrives. Decorate the new nursery…check. Pack hospital bag…check. You even researched your companies maternity leave policy and have a strategy to combine sick, disability, and vacation hours to spend as much time with baby as possible.
The fateful day comes and your world is changed forever. You’re in love. You never want to leave this perfect little jewel. Nevertheless, after just a few short weeks anxiety is building as the clock tic-tock tic-tock’s towards your impending split as you prepare to return to work.
Sound familiar? For working mother’s this is an all too familiar drama. Placing a newborn baby in childcare is both expensive and heart wrenching. For most women, “during the postpartum period, there’s an enormous desire to take care of their own child.” Yet, millions of women ignore their most basic maternal instincts and leave their infants anyway. My question is why?
Why go back to work? After having participated in the miracle of conception, carried life in your womb, and performed the superhuman act of labor and delivery offering any occupation a place of priority that interferes with that seems ludicrous. For more and more new mom’s and dad’s trusting someone else with their bundle is simply is not an option.
If you’ve never seriously considered staying home it may be difficult to trust your intuition and see past the obligatory return for social, professional, or financial reasons. However, if you have marketable skills, products, or services to offer, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t do it from home.
Before you dismiss the idea and resolve that it’s not for people like you, consider the following;
– $12,000 average cost of childcare for two children.
– $2,870 cost of transportation ($200 car payment, $70 insurance, $2,600 gas).
– $300 wardrobe.
That’s just over $15,000 in savings, as a start, by staying home. Not to mention travel time (…time is money!), money saved by preparing your own meals, and a host of other money syphoning traps that seem to lie in wait every time you leave your home. As if this were not enough, those who do choose to return to the workforce are having to earn considerably more than before to cover childcare expenses, plus pay taxes on that income before they even pay their childcare providers.
Of course starting your own business does require a considerable amount of work. It will require discipline, dedication, and patience. With most businesses you rarely hear about the months and years of hard work behind the scenes.
Most kids begin Kindergarten at 5 years of age. Coincidentally, the incubation period for most new businesses is about the same length of time. While you may not have much capital to start your new business, one thing you will certainly have more of, once you decide not to return to your old occupation, is time. Invest this time. Use the first few months to research, read, grow, educate yourself, and develop your business idea…all things you can do from your smartphone while holding your gorgeous new baby.
Unlike other business models, being a Work At Home Mom, or Dad, is somewhat of a juggling act. You are the COO of your home and family, first and foremost. Still, if you’re diligent, by the time your newborn becomes a toddler, you can have a viable alternative means of income to supplement the more than $15,000 you’ve already been saving each year by caring for, training, and nurturing your own children. If you’re feeling torn about returning to work and don’t know what to do, take the plunge. It’s worth a shot! Your children are only young once. The rest of the work world will be there waiting should you ever decide to return.
By Rochelle Davis, MAEd/TEd
http://mrsrochelledavis.wix.com/wutsoevrthngsrluvly
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