Group Discussions

Did you take some time off to be a sahm after having kids?

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  I went right back to work after 3 months of maternity leave but have a few friends who took 2-4 years off to stay at home, before they returned to work.
  
  
  
  If you did this, did you have a hard time going back? Did you return to the same industry or do something very different?

  Flag as inappropriate Posted by Nataly on 19th March 2008
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  I posted on another saying how I had to return 4 weeks post-partum. I had only been with my company a little over a year and anything under 2 years only gives you 4 weeks off at full pay. We couldn't afford to NOT have the full pay, so I had to go back. Thankfully, my mother doesn't have a job so she was very happy to spend the day with her granddaughter while I work. I was so afraid of having to find a daycare.
  
  
  
  I still struggle daily coming to work. She'll be 18 months on the 24th. I think if I would be busy all day at work, it wouldn't be as bad. We go through low periods where we just have to sort of sit around and wait for work. No one gets laid off. No one gets fired. We just have to sit in our cubes and stare at our two monitors and keep ourselves occupied (hence my frequent internet usage).
  
  
  
  I have been actively searching for someone that know how to make websites because I have a wonderful idea, but I've tried to copy source codes and modify them to try to get what I want to do, but I just don't think it's straight html. A good bit of it looks like java sourcing, but I know nothing about that.

  Flag as inappropriate Posted by Marcia on 19th March 2008
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  I chose to stay at home with my daughter after she was born. It would have been kind of stressful for us, but I found an incredible home business opportunity that is simple and takes only a little of my time everyday. This has made it VERY doable for us and makes it to where I can still be home with my 4 month old instead of having to do daycare or some other alternative.
  
  
  
  PS. If your interested in starting your own business, go to www.mystressfreeincome.com

  Flag as inappropriate Posted by Sheraline on 19th March 2008
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  I went back to work within 4 to 6 weeks after I had my oldest son. When he turned 2 I quit my job and we moved to another state. This was a military move for my husband. I desided to stay home then. I had the rest of my children. I stayed home for 5 yrs. I loved it. I went back to work before my husband and I divorced so that I could support the kids and myself. I never stopped sense.

  Flag as inappropriate Posted by crazymomof04 on 20th March 2008
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  When I had a regular job, I had to work until I went into labor with my son. Then, i had 6 weeks of unpaid leave time. Then i had to go back and work, just to pay for my son to be in daycare. I wish I had started doing what I do now, back then. It's so much better not to have a manager breathing down my neck telling me what to do. I can pretty much set my own hours, and if I have an emergency, I don't have to request time off, unpaid. I still get paid no matter what. Being a military wife, and having to move around all the time, and quit my jobs, this is much more stable.

  Flag as inappropriate Posted by on 28th April 2008
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  We ended up moving right before I gave birth, and so I had to quit my job anyway. My plan was to be a SAHM, but have ended up going the WAHM route instead. It was about 2 or 3 months after my daughter was born that I truly started seeking work from home opportunities. So my answer is yes and no.

  Flag as inappropriate Posted by mamajama on 28th April 2008
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  I was a SAHM for a year after dd's birth then worked part time (Weekends, Mondays&Tuesdays nights) for 2 years now that she's 3 I will be working full time which means she will also be in full time care in a preschool and Im pretty nervous about it.

  Flag as inappropriate Posted by Mia on 29th April 2008
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  I took about 5 months off after the birth of my daughter. Part of it was that I wanted time with her and the other part was the fact that I wanted to change jobs anyway. At the time she was born, I worked rotating shift work with the State Police as a dispatcher. Quite frankly, I was ready to get off the controlled massp insanity rollercoaster. I went back to work, tho, in a regular 8:15-5, M-F job and I was surprised that I didn't know what to do with myself. LOL
  
  
  
  I did, however, end up years later and take 3 1/2 years off to be a SAHM, as well as recuperate from my parents' illnesses and subsequent deaths 5 months apart. I had done long distance care giving for nearly 2 years + job + home + wife + mother. It took its toll and I ended up in the hospital several days after Xmas that year with stress induced chest pains. So, on the 1st anniv. of my Dad's death, I turned in my resignation. Fortunately, my parents had left me some money and I used that to be a SAHM until I was ready to go back to work, this time on my own terms and in what I wanted to do. My daughter was about 10 when I went out and 13 when I went back. I don't regret it. I desperately needed the time to recupe and deal with grieving and the estates. I'm an only, so it all fell to me. So, I guess I kinda fell into being a SAHM for a bit, but not for the reasons normally given.

  Flag as inappropriate Posted by JDaffron on 29th April 2008