For the Love of Child Care

I’ve always been a working mom. After having my daughter I was back to work in six weeks, since I was a new employee I didn’t have the benefits to allow for a longer maternity leave. It was hard dropping her off every week, but I was lucky to find someone that she really bonded with. Sometimes she would prefer hanging out with her caretaker than coming to me, which was hard but I liked that she loved her so much. 

When I had my son, I was able to stay home with him for three months, but when the time came we also had to put him in childcare as well. The kids don’t know another way, so I doubt they feel like they are missing out. 

But still every day I drove to work, I knew in my heart I should be with them. Every time something would go wrong or my child would get hurt, I convinced myself that if I was at home it would have never happened. I just had a burning desire to be with them instead of sitting in my cubicle.

But now I’m getting the chance and I don’t know if I’m ready. We made the family decision to allow my son to remain in daycare – he’s my shy guy and super energetic so the stimulation will be necessary for him. Plus I’m not sure how much work will get done with a rambunctious three-year old running around!

My daughter is in Kindergarten and starting next week I’ll be picking her up after school instead of sending her to daycare. Which means I will have to get all my work done before 2pm every day! I’m excited about being able to spend some one-on-one time with her, because her brother usually demands so much more of my time.

I’m also looking forward to having a more structured day. For the past four weeks I’ve had a hard time getting anything done. I find it more difficult to manage time when I have more of it. When I was working, running my business, and running the household I barely had a few hours to get anything I wanted to do done. Because of the restrictions those three hours were efficiently managed. But having an entire day to get things done, usually just causes me to add more to an already unfinished and past due to do list.

I’ll have to let you know how it goes next week when my daughter is home with me, while I work. I may completely change my mind!

How do you balance work and the kids? Do you have daycare while you are working?