The decision to become a SAHM (a.k.a. Stay At Home Mom) is difficult for any woman...or man for that matter. We take in to account the pros and cons of daycare, loss of a second income, vacations, bills to be paid, loss of advancement in the 'working world' (I'll go into the quotes of "working world" later) and what is best for themselves and their children.
Parents who choose to stay at home give up that morning coffee on the way to work, socialization with other adults on a daily basis on the commute, elevator, etc. But don't get us wrong....we go to "work" every day. its called raising our children.
We communicate with other SAHM's usually in their first year of Mat leave....we talk about diapers, drool, teeth, laundry (and how do you get that stain out?). As our kids get older and we talk about superheros, princesses, fairies, how tired we are.
Those of us who stay home to raise our children do the best we can. We don't have the money to buy nice fancy clothes (most of us anyways don't), get our hair done, nails either. Our jeans have holes in them because we are crawling on the floor with our kids. Our hands are rough and dry from washing dishes 5 times a day because the plastic plates can't go in the dishwasher because you need them for lunch, and snack, and dinner. My nails are naturally brittle....it's just the way they are, so they chip, crack, split all the time due to the endless washing of dishes. Yes......I know there are dish gloves, but who has time to put them on when half way through dishes you need to rescue a toy, or a running nose occurs...then trying to pull those gloves off becomes a pain.
So to end the first post I want to say good job to those who choose to/can stay at home. We make sacrifices for our children, but in the end we actually enjoy it!