Help! Stay Home or Go to Work?

Question

So ladies I need serious help cause I don’t know what to do.  If you just had your first baby 4 weeks ago and have 4 more weeks until you were supposed to start back to work, would you go back to work and put your son in daycare at 8wks old or stay home with your baby?  
Let me explain my situation. 
Financially we can be ok with just my husband’s income so financially it would be a little tight but we could do it. I’m torn because I work in a dental office I started working at once I found out I was pregnant- I found out on the Saturday before I was to start Monday, and they have been nothing but wonderful and accommodating. They were excited for me when I told them, always understood when I was super sick, never fussed about my appointments, and I truly love working with these people, they’ve become my friends.  I don’t want to not go back to work and lose my job. But there are plenty of other great offices out there I’m sure and I’ve got lots of experience so I could always find somewhere else, or pray that in the future I could get my job back at my current office (they did have to look for a while and went through a few before I came along so I’m hoping that’d work out). 
The other side is of course I really really want to stay home with my baby boy. The past 4 weeks anytime I think or talk about going back to work and leaving him I cry cause I don’t want to leave him and miss out. My hubby and I always said when we have kids we want me to stay home with them, we were just super blessed and got pregnant quickly.  I feel like this is the time when he is so small and growing so fast is the time to stay home with him, he needs his momma, I don’t want strangers in daycare raising my baby when I could have that time, a job is just a job and I’ll never get this time back again with my baby and I can always get another job later on and make money then. And I think it will be really hard on me trying to balance work and at home with baby- my husband is gone some nights during the week and while I was pregnant it was so hard on me not having him home to help, it will be so much harder when baby is here and trying to balance work also. My husband is going to try and stay in town more too now that baby is here but we’ll see. I figure after baby is 6mo to a year old I could go back to work. 
I just don’t know what to do and I go back and forth between no stay home and enjoy this time with baby, or go back to work and just try and make it work and keep the job I love with people I really like.  Help me out please.  I need to make a decision ASAP and tell my work. 
Give me feedback if you stayed home with your baby or if you went back to work.  Sorry for the long post but I appreciate it!! ❤️ 
Baby Liam Bennett born 7/24/18. 💙

Answer

100% recommend staying at home if you can. You won’t leave ok back and say “gee, I wish I worked more.” It sounds like your work friends will be supportive too. Family comes first.

Answer

11110000000000% stay at home if you can. They are only little once, you won't regret staying home.

Answer

With my first, i was out of work for 3 months because he was 6 weeks premature. I was given 8 weeks paid maternity leave. He was in the nicu for 7 weeks which meant i would only have one paid week left. I took an unpaid leave to stay. I went back to work when he was 3 months old and worked for 5 months after that. He rolled over back to front on my first day back. I hated being gone. Thankfully my mom watched him while my fiance and i worked but that meant we had to work around her work schedule and we never got to see each other. If we changed out schedules to have more family time, we would have to pay someone to watch him and i dont trust anyone i dont know with my babies. So we decided the cheapest thing to do was for me to stay home. Its been 3 years and i dont regret it. Things have been tight. Weve made sacrifices, but in my opinion it was totally worth staying home and watching my now two babies grow. 
You have to do what you think is right, but you said it yourself. This time goes by too fast. My son is starting pre-k in two weeks when it feels like just last week we were holding him for the first time.

Answer

Stay home. Feel lucky you have the option and take full advantage of it. That’s wonderful you have a job you love, but you’ll never get these years back. My lo is 15 months old and I’m still soaking up every second of being home with him. I do not regret leaving my career one bit. I know I’d regret it right now though if I’d missed out on being a stay at home mom during these precious years ❤️

Answer

I love staying at home with my boy but I have a friend who loves working so it’s a personal choice. Is it possible to go back to work part time, like 2-3 days a week? I’m enjoying working 1 day a week since it gives me a chance to have adult conversations and make a little spending money.

Answer

If you can stay home I recommend staying home.  
I have with my son. He is 13 months old now.   I have loved the time with him.  You can always find a new job.  
Just you and your husband set down and talk about it all.

Answer

I have 2 kids (2 years and 2 months) and couldn't wait to go back to work this time. I love them both (and have nursed them both times successfully while working) but I also love my teaching job. Both of my kids have always loved daycare and learn things that can't teach myself at home.  Being a SAHM is a blessing but don't feel bad if you want to go back to work.

Answer

You will absolutely be able to find a good job with great people in the future. But this newborn stage? Infant stage? First words, crawling, walking ect. You do not want to miss on these precious few first years that will fly by so fast it’s heartbreaking. Be there with your baby as long as you can.

Answer

If it was me I would stay home. 
We are “ok” if I stay home but I like to bring in some income too so I work part time. Maybe that can be an option? Also you should factor how much day care will cost compared to what your bringing in. That’s why I’m not going back to work, here it’s expensive and me working pays for daycare and not much else so I might as well stay home.

Answer

If you can stay home do it, you won’t regret it even on the long days.  You can even explain how your feeling to your co workers and work on keeping those friendships. Enjoy this time with your cute little one!

Help! Stay Home or Go to Work?

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