My question is, once the baby is born, how do you logistically, and financially, do it??
Jacob and I have two incomes. Our bills, mortgage payments, etc. are based on TWO incomes. I don't feel that one of us staying home is an option (I know it couldn't be me. Props to all you SAHMs but I just think I'd go bonkers). And daycare facilities are F***ing expensive!! (I've looked at a couple of places... you know... research. I'm a planner). I don't know that we can fit that into our tight-as-it-is budget. We don't really have family-members-as-babysitter options either. At least, not to cover the first 5 years until the kid starts school.
Please, tell me something that I haven't thought of before. How do people make it work??
(P.S. My high school best friend just had a baby AND I just watched yesterday's episode of Grey's Anatomy.... I have a little baby-brain going on right now).
8 comments:
Not a parent myself, but I'm in the same boat as you. Baby on the brain but no idea how it would actually work having a kid.
After a couple of months, I plan on doing freelance/contract work from home. Won't be my full income from before but should help fill in the gap.
I would love to have the option to work at home (at least for a little while)... but social work isn't really a "work at home" sort of deal.... bah.
Where there is a will, there is a way. I work part-time until David makes a bit more money (hopefully next year) so that we don't have to live paycheck to paycheck. First off, do more research on daycare. It doesn't have to be a licensed facility as long as they don't have more than 3 children from other people. The state considers them to be a baby sitter and not a daycare provider. Many times a mom will supplement their income by taking in another mom's kids. There is a lady in our church who does this for $2.50 an hour. I don't know if you'd be comfortable with this, but I'd contact some local churches and see if they either have a daycare program themselves, or have women in their congregation you could talk to.
Kids are totally worth the financial sacrifice, but you do have to cut back. We've seen a total of three movies in over two years and only go out to eat once a month. We both pack lunches for work.
Lauren,
Thank you so much for this. This really is something that I had not thought about, and didn't know how home day-care type of set ups differed in comparison to licensed day care facilities. Thank you.
Our plan is to have me continue to work half time while Matt takes care of our little girl and then he is working a slightly reduced number of hours that will start after I get home. Of course, we've never done this before, but it was our priority to have at least one of us stay home with our kids and this seemed the best way to do it for us.
P.S. There's something about edging ever so closely to 30 that kind of puts babies on your mind, isn't there?
Ack, Holly don't even talk about all us girls turning 30! I don't even want to think about it.
lol... Lauren I'm with you! =)
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