Work at Home Moms!?

Question

I work part time for a criminal attorney. I love the work I do. In September, my babysitter quit (I have two children). I live an hour away from my closest family members, and I live in a big city, and I really don't trust anyone to watch my children. I have looked into daycare, but it costs per month exactly what I make per month, so I would basically be working to put my kids in daycare.

My boss and I worked out a system where I can work from home most days of the week, and come into the office three mornings. My husband also worked out with his boss some mornings that he could have the baby at work while our oldest is in school. It worked out pretty well, until now.

My boss has wanted me to pick up extra responsibilities. Since I am not in the office as much, there is less time to do the stuff that can only be done at the office. And when I am there, I usually have emergencies to take care of, so it takes a while to get tedious stuff done. Now with all of the extra stuff, things are getting more and more behind.

On top of this, my baby has a vision condition that we are going to the doctor quite a bit for (meaning I miss work), and she has been sick for a long time with a cold and other things that require doctor visits (meaning I miss more work). When I am home, I am trying to work and take care of her, and things get even MORE behind.

Anyway, here is the point of my story. How do you manage all of these stressors as a work at home mom? And is there a point where you really have to evaluate whether to be home with the kids exclusively or work in an office exclusively? This really wouldn't be an issue if I had a support network near me, but I moved away from my family and we can't just up and sell our house right now. Also, my husband is working two jobs to help us, so it is really hard to lose an entire income.

Has anyone been through this before? If so, how did you handle it? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for hanging in there since this was so long!

Answer 1

Yes I had the same problem . My husband and I sat down and went over all of our finances and decided it was best for me to stay home. it was difficult at first not to have that extra income. but in the end it was the best thing for our child.
good luck

Answer 2

heres what we did i had a great job making almost 50 thousand a year managing a resturant i hired a sitter ( i live 1008 miles away from the closest relative and drugs are ramptnt in this area) she was a sweet old lady who i thought would work out fine untill the police came to wear i worked to tell me they had been watching our house for a few months and the were going to bust this lady on meth and crack charges because she was selling them out of our house when we wern't there yes total shock so after all this i put my daughter in daycare the first day she was there a 8 month old baby(mine was 10 months) pulled on a chord by her playpen and down came the crock pot full of hot water she had burns on 90 percent of her body and severe brain damage also (yes i still thank god that it was not my daughter)she will be like this forever. i quit my job that day and it is hard we do not go out to eat alot (last time was july) i shop at discount grocery's and goodwill we got rid of one of our cars and moved in to a smaller house we do not use convience stores and my hubby takes both his breakfast and lunch to work (yes i make it ) if you sit down and list all and i mean all the the expences you have you just might find that there are lots of them you can cut out... we make just enough to survive right now and my kids have had to scale back on christmas and such but to me it is worth it it drives me crazy sometimes but i just think of how lucky i was that my kids wern't harmed when i put them in danger even though it was not intentional on our part.now you can answer my question it is about state ratios i am going to work my but off to change the ratios of this state even if it takes so long my kids won't be able to go there good luck and rember you can do anything if you try if you think it's better to stay home u can find a way to do it

Answer 3

this is tough, i too live away from my relatives and don't feel comfortable leaving my kids with just anyone. i actually walked away from my career and we drastically changed our lifestyle so that i could be able to stay at home full time with our 2 children (ages 3 & 1) honestly it was quite scary at first but in the last year i have come up with many ways to earn extra income from home at my own discretion. it is not an ideal situation but we are not starving or severly doing without either. my priority is to be the primary influence in the development of my children during this crucial time and therefore the decision was an easy one for me to make, the hard part was figuring out the how. but with determination comes perserverance.....do what you feel in your heart and the rest will follow.

Answer 4

Hi! im really sorry your having a tough time! Is there any way you can talk to your boss and let him/her know that you cant take on more responsibilities? Just explain that you have to much on your plate right now with your babys eye stuff and maybe in a month or two you could handle more (this way they wont replace you)