When my husband and I were expecting our first baby, we had decided that I would stay home with the children. I frequently ran into people who would say things like "How are you going to afford that?" I told them we would find a way.
We did.
Without my income it was really hard for a while.
I have not been employed for the last 6 years. Mind you for the first portion of this my husband did not make a lot of money.
To allow me to stay home and take care of our family we:
Got rid of our car
Used clothe diapers (not the cool new ones, old ones you fold and use safety pins on.)
Went internetless
Cable and Satellite-less
Never ate out. My husband even packed lunches for work.
Had no cell phone.Cut the cost on the home phone.
Was it hard? Yes
Was it pleasant? No. It is horrible to walk across town in February with a baby and stuff in tow to catch a ride to church.
Was it worth it? Absolutely.
Because I stayed home we were able to:
Always have someone we trusted and knew taking care of our children ( ya know- me.)
Taking care of babies LATE at night wasn't as big of a deal.
Never had to pay for day care.
Never worried about sick days.
Allowed me the ability to focus on raising our children with out the outside stresses of employment.
There are so many wonderful blessings from being at home with my kids. I don't comprehend how working mothers handle things.
It breaks my heart when I hear a woman say "I have to work." I understand there are situations that require it. As I mentioned, we have been in tough financial straights before. There are times where it is an absolute necessity.
I just have a hard time when they say they HAVE to work, when really it is just to maintain the lifestyle. I understand how hard it is to live without somethings. Cable is such a wonderful thing to live WITHOUT. If you have never been without cable or satellite you do not understand how wonderful it is to be free of it.
A friend of mine is in a very hard financial situation. They called Dish and canceled. That is over $1,000 a year they are saving. Now they use Netflix for a grand total of $9 a month. How much does one really watch on TV to justify a cost of $1000 a year? Even $500? Go ahead add up your bill. Do you really watch that much TV? If you are - how much of life are you missing out on?
I know I am a judgemental person. I admit it. I am also working on it. I know I don't have the whole story every time. When I hear people complain about money, sometimes I want to have them hand over their bank statement and go over it with them. So many things aren't as important as you think they are.
You can always make more money, you can not make more time.
between the internet and TV i do spend over the $1000. But if you know me and i know you do, I use it. Luckily I have the ability and job to afford that, and even more luckily I have the ability to have Jen stay home with Charlotte. The money thing is so hard to get a hold of for some people, its great to have family and friends who know how to handle their lives with or without it.
ReplyDeleteI wish people could see how delightful and well adjusted your children are--such a good "advertisement" for staying home with them! They are some of our very favorite people in the world!
ReplyDeleteYou are right--our society is VERY spoiled! I worked with "poor" people--who still had multiple televisions, DVD players, Cable & Satellite, ate at restaurants. Compared with poor people in other countries--who truly have barely anything, we are incredibly rich!
When Evan got home from Brazil, he said that Brazilians had asked him all the time if all Americans were fat, which made him laugh and say "no"!--but as we walked through the airport, he looked again, and said "Wow, Americans really ARE fat!"
(OK--not you obviously, but our society is!)