Would you rather be poor and stay at home with your baby or have money and use day care?

Question

THIS IS A QUESTION THAT IMPLIES THAT YOU HAVE A CHOICE WHAT WOULD YOU DO

Answer 1

It depends. If there is someone that is going to be working besides you, I would much rather stay home than be rich. But if you are the only means to support your child financially, then you should be going to work. However, raising your child should be your biggest priority when deciding what is best for you. If you don't NEED to work, than maybe you would do a better job of raising him/her than the daycare center...

Answer 2

It really depends on just how extreme a situation you are talking about. If by "poor" you mean you don't have a decent place to live, not enough food for your family, the electricity is going to be cut off. Then you are better off working and providing a better standard of living for your child.

But if you mean poor as in you can't afford to take vacations or buy expensive clothes or go out all the time, then it's not really about being poor. In that case, there are trade-offs you make if you choose to be home with your baby. At that point, it really is about personal choice, and not just about the money. I am a working mom and I am a happier person and a better mom because of that.

Sure, there are days where I miss my son and think I'd be better off at home with him. But in general, I enjoy my job, I like the way it stretches me as a person in different ways than being a parent does. And it means that I have a lot more patience and attention to focus on my son during the time we do spend together, which is a couple of hours each morning and evening. That is his time, I do prepare dinner and stuff, but I don't try to do a lot of chores or other activities, I wait until he goes to sleep so I can maximize our time together. So for us, using daycare and having more money than we would if I were at home is best but for a lot more reasons than just the money.

Answer 3

I actually had to make that difficult choice myself years ago as a single mom. It wasn't easy, and I turned down some lucrative job opportunities in the process. But staying home with my kids during the early years was absolutely the best possible decision, and they have grown into wonderful, caring adults, I think, because of it. Not that it was easy, but I helped offset expenses by finding a variety of jobs I could do at home (everything from bookkeeping to freelance design). And once they were in school, I was able to transition back into my career (which in spite of my fears, did not suffer in the least).

They say that the first 3 years are the most critical for parents to be with their children, and I totally agree. I never felt comfortable with the idea of my babies being raised by strangers earning minimum wage, no matter how nice they seemed. And too often you see parents over-compensate for their absence by spoiling the kids in ways that lead to huge problems later. I know that not everyone has the luxury, but if you have the option, it’s a no-brainer: Staying home with your kids? Priceless!

Answer 4

LindaLou is right, day care isn`t cheap. And nothing can compare to the type of child who is brought up at home with a loving dedicated parent as opposed to a payed caregiver. But you need to pay the bills and feel good about your lifestyle too.
If you can be creative and try earn money from home or take a job which can allow your child to be with you that`s a great compromise or stick to minimal working hours....
At the end it`s a really tough decision. If you make it with an open minded and true attitide then you can feel good knowing however hard, you`re doing what`s right.

Answer 5

I once had to choose. I choose to go to work. We were barely making our bills and on some Months I had no idea if we would have food. I wanted the best for my children, so I went back to work for 4 days a week. We found a locate sitter who charges less than day care, the schools some times can reference you to parents who stay at home and babysit. The choices are hard, but in today's World it almost always takes two incomes to survive. Good luck!

Answer 6

Easy question. Day care! What self-respecting parent wouldn't! Could you imagine actually staying home all day with your baby! That'd be insane! It's bad enough you have to feed, clothe and send the little brat off to school. Only losers stay at home and interact, love, respect, care for, appreciate, educate and, get this...actually WANT to see their thankless little pests the whole day. Duh, they are "LOSERS"...that is why they are "POOR" and can't pay someone else to do the dirty work..."DAY CARE" or "NANNY"

You gotta respect the parents who BOTH work too, money and careers are WAY more important than actually raising your own kids. It's amazing we've made it this far, I mean we all laugh at 'em now, even my mom was a loser. But I don't even talk to her anymore anyway, it's too embarrassing to tell people my parents were poor and too lazy to send me to day care.

The cool thing is how much kids have changed since it's no longer acceptable to stay at home with your kids (no one wants to labeded a pathetic poor loser!). They're no longer lazy, greedy, disrespectful, immoral, uncaring, hateful and deceitful, murderous, like they had been for centuries! If only day care would've been the 'in' thing centuries ago.

Answer 7

I am a stay at home mom and we definately are not "rich" financially. Our son, but not the older, even though we do pay for health insurance on tehm both, would barely qualify for Medicaid. So I guess my answer is obvious. For us, it is so much more important to give them what they need by one of us always being here than to have a few "extras". There are some, unfortunately, who can;t make teh choice we did. And there are others that for their own reasons have made teh opposite choice. We ther or not I agree with them, both ways CAN and HAVE worked for familes. At the same time both ways CAN and HAVE failed for other families. It's not just about quantity and it's not just about quality, you have to find a balance of teh two that works for your family.

Answer 8

You don't end up with much money left after day-care fees and parking or transportation and buying clothes and lunch anyway. It almost costs more to work, unless you have a REALLY well-paying job. What it will give you is the opportunity not to lose skills and experience in your field. If you're just going to work as a waitress or something though, stay home if you can, if you have a partner who's working.

Answer 9

To me, it is not the matter of being rich or being poor, since as some people already said, you are not left with much money when you work.

The thing for me is when you work, you have that feeling of being financially independent and having some adult interaction. And if you have an extra $15 left in your pocket at the end of the month, you can treat your baby to a fun day at the Chuckee Cheese, or heck, get a manicure!

Answer 10

Depends on how poor your talking about. If I'm going to be barely surviving it would be in my best interest to work in order to support myself as well as my baby. It wouldn't do any good to stay at home with my baby if we are both starving. But if I can still live comfortably, i would spend as much time with my child as possible. children these days need attention. I think one of the biggest problems with our society is parents don't pay enough attention to their children.