Cutting Back to Stay at Home

I am a Stay at Home Mom. I don't really like that title- it sounds odd to me. But I love being at home with my girls. Otter Dad and I have been married for 16 years and I worked outside the home for 13 of them.

I've always thought that it was important that children, especially very young children, be surrounded by family as much as possible. In fact during our marriage preparation classes, one of the exercises was a test that asked us the same questions so that we could compare our answers. We were on the same page in almost every area. But the True or False: It's important that one of the parents stay home with our children" got opposite responses.

Otter Dad is not one of those, "My wife must stay home with the kids" kind of guys. I've occasionally wished he was. But not really, because that's just not him. He does understand how important it is to me though. And is completely supportive of the decision. But, it was primarily my decision.

I worked when my oldest was a baby. ODad didn't have to leave for work until 2pm and I could pick C up around 5. I thought that three hours a day in a child care situation was not that bad. But after E was born, ODad's schedule changed and I really didn't want the kiddos away from home for so long.

This choice cost us financially. I made considerably more money than ODad. So this was not a case of losing some extra pocket money. This was a 60% family pay cut. I'll be blogging more in this series to tell you what we did to make this possible: what's worked for us and what hasn't. I'm hoping it will help others who are struggling to make this decision but think they can't afford it. I know that there are situations out there that really require both parents to work, and many single parent families who have little choice in the matter. But for people that really want to make it work, maybe some of our strategies will work for you.