Working Mom

This week's SUYL on Kelly's Korner is about Working Mom's. I felt the need to put my two cents in when it came to this topic and tell my story!

I have self-titled myself both a working mom and a stay at home mom. You see, I am very blessed, but at the same time I feel disadvantaged. My son is 10 months old and since I returned from maternity leave at 4 weeks postpartum he has come with me to work almost every day. I am very fortunate to work for my husband's family's company as a business manager. I handle the day-to-day accounts receivable, accounts payable, taxes, etc. It is a great job, right up my alley since I am an Ag Economics major with a minor in business. I work 8am to 5pm (sometimes later) every day. We live in the middle of no where (we're 30 minutes from a grocery store), so daycare options are limited. There is a daycare in town and my son is able to attend every Tuesday and every other Friday. So that is why he is not at work with me every single day of the week. Since the daycare is full though and we cannot find someone to stay at home with him then of course he comes to work.

I love that I bring my son to work with me, and I love the fact that my job allows me the opportunity to do so. However, at times it is incredibly stressful and tiring. That is why I have titled myself both a working mom and a stay at home mom. I am both the manager and the babysitter. It's really hard because a lot of times I feel as if I am failing as a mom because I am not able to give him 100% of my attention. There's been countless times where he's pinched his fingers in something, or picked something off the floor and stuck it in his mouth... just things that if I wasn't working I'd be able to watch for. Then I think that I am also failing as a manager. There's no way that I can give 100% of my attention to the job either. It's almost a lose-lose situation. I realize that many people will be furious thinking that I am crazy for complaining about being able to take my child to work. But really and truly, it is HARD. I love my son so much and I am so happy to see him every day, but sometimes I just wish that we had somewhere to take him.

Now we have another baby on the way, due in April, so things will become even more complicated then. There probably will not be an opening at the daycare until at least August, so we will need double duty on the kids until then. Not sure what we're going to do...... and that scares the crap out of me! We've talked about moving from our small town to the neighboring town and commuting to work, just so we could try to have the kids go to a daycare in town. This is pretty much our last resort though because it would suck!

I had a friend ask me why I didn't just stay at home.... well, two reasons. 1) Financially there is no way that I could quit my job. There's no way that we could live on just my husband's salary. Not that I make sooo much money or anything, but it allows us to pay our bills and live within our means. I'm sure that we could make things work on just his salary but it would be very very difficult. Our daycare is very affordable, so dropping daycare really wouldn't help all that much. By the way, did I mention that I also take online classes for my masters degree? Tuition is a witch with a b to pay for! But that's a whole other topic! 2) I love my job and I love working. I am a very type-a person. I thrive on doing things well and always pushing myself to be better at something. Hence the masters degree. DO NOT GET ME WRONG - I am not saying that there is anything wrong with being a SAHM, but it is just not for me. I need the work environment.

I know that this post was pretty horribly organized and horribly presented, however it is just a jumble of my thoughts on being a working mom. I don't know what my ideal situation would be either and that is frustrating. I really don't have any good advice either for being a working mom..... Please feel free to lend me your thoughts and suggestions! =) Thanks for reading!