Working mom vs SAHM

amother

cornflower

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 8:55 am

As others have said, there are plusses and minuses to each.
I have worked full time + travel time with babies at home, pregnant, nursing/pumping and it was SO hard. I have always been the main breadwinner and though I was not thrilled that my husband never had a career that took off, knowing that I am supporting my family, b"h a milllion times over quite well, is very fulfilling.
I had to be extremely organized for shabbat and yom tov and even so there were always tears of stress around this time every year.
I'll never forget the year I was having company, parents, married siblings, others. I had researched a slew of new recipes and took a few days off before Pesach. I rarely take off extra days.
I was set to start cooking with my Mom helping me when our servers went haywire. I was working for several hours while showing my amazing Mom what to do in the kitchen. I felt so bad that she was now stuck making my wild recipes when we could have stuck to her tried and true chicken and potato kugel. She was such a good sport.
The crises ended early enough for me to take over. Talk about working mom stress.

amother

Oak

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 3:06 pm

amother [ Green ] wrote:

I work in public school which is full time during the school year with nice breaks for winter holidays and summer. They don't coincide very well with my kids schedule but its better than nothing. I am working until my husband's business does well enough for me not to have to work... including benefits and all that.... it will probably be another few years at least.

My ideal job situation would be working 2-3 days a week, from 9:30 to 1. And make enough money that way. That way I will have something to get me out of the house/feel fullfilled but also not so much that forces me to plan the exact timing of my grocery shopping, shabbos cooking and laundry loads...

Sigh. A girl can dream, right?

When your last bus pickup in the morning is at 9:45 and when the bus runs late it can be after 10, no I wouldn't want a job that starts at 9:30 which would mean being all ready, dressed, and out of the house before that.

Coming home at 1 with the first bus drop-off at 3, means you are drained from work and you don't have enough time to both unwind and also get things done before the kids come home.

To sum it up: Working the part-time hours you mention means you are working almost as hard as a full-time worker but at a huge pay reduction.

amother

Green

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 3:18 pm

amother [ Oak ] wrote:

Maybe for you it would mean that.

I leave the house before my kids go to school. Sometimes, before they wake up.

I don't have any bus pickups/drop offs. We do carpools. My husband does mornings. And I literally run out of work the second my day is done and do carpool and walk in the door with my kids. At 4 pm, totally drained from the day. And then make dinner while they do HW/drive each other crazy. Having 2 hrs from 1-3 sounds like a dream to me.