Income Generation and Being a Stay-at-home Mom

I am a stay at home mom of two, I love it wouldn't change it for a heartbeat. I get to wake up and take care of my babies all day. Spend days getting to know them and teach them all the time. I do work a little from home doing hair it is a good addition to my husbands salary and it helps a lot. I only feel trapped when I let myself stay in my jammies all day every day and not go out a couple of times a week.

It was always my dream to be a stay at home / work at home mom. My mom was too. I always knew that when I had kids of my own, that if it was at all possible, that I wanted to raise them myself. When we got pregnant with our first, we were doing ok finacially, but it was a stretch to loose my income. Luckily I became a thrifty shopper with food and clothes. I saved money from not having to buy clothes for work - I had worked in a bank and had to wear nice things (boy was that a long time ago!). Also, Luckily, my hubby's job was good and stable and he has drastically increased his income over the past 9 yrs. I didn't start part time work from home until my youngest was 4. She was in preK part time and I started working about 15 hrs per week. Now, my kids are in school full time (1st and 3rd) and I work about 25 hrs per week. I love my job. I work for the same company as my hubby, doing data entry and info searching. I work from my home while the kids are in school. I take them and pick them up. I do dishes and laundry on my lunchbreak. If the kids are sick or have a vacation day from school, I work my schedule around them, so we can do something fun (unless sick).
I'll admit, I have felt isolated at times and often miss "adult conversation", but I wouldn't change a thing. My kids need me right now.
As far as the working at home and balancing kids - I wouldn't try it before they were at least 3, but more like 4 yrs old. I couldn't do the work I do and take care of an infant or a 2 yr old........

I have never felt trapped. I have felt lonely at times. This is sorta my own doing though, I am really shy and hard to read sometimes. My whole life i have been that way. The people who I am close with have told me, They thought I was stuck up and what not. When I really feel nuts, I go get a part time job. It is usually just to force me to get out of the house. My husband works and we struggle. We have never not had a roof over our head and a full belly at night. I thank god for that. There are so many different types of sahms. The ones that are very involved in going to play groups and going to the prek classes with their kiddo. There are the laid back moms that hangout at home and are more homebodies.

We are in a house now so I really dont get so blue anymore. I can garden and the kiddos can get into it and they can ride bikes and play on swing set and just be free.

I have a plan that once all my kids are out and full time in school, that I will be just about done with the college part of my degree and actually start going to med.midwife classes. I am going into midwifery:) So I have that to keep me busy as well.

-Libby

I'm a stay at home mom and I homeschool also. I also teach ballet in my home. I like it because I only work 4 hours a week but make a little extra. I don't make enough for us to live on but it's a good supplement. My daughters are able to participate also and I have a recital and everything. I like doing things at home where I make a lot of money for little time. When I sold Avon, I only made about $5 an hour so working 10 hours a week seemed like a waste of time. If I sell things on eBay, I make sure it's worth my time. Good luck!

I didn't at first. My plan was to work and have DD in daycare. Over time, that changed and I now freelance/work from home. Some days it's hard because work flows into home by necessity. I don't want my child to be neglected, either, and I work PT only. I do enjoy working from home, but I specifically choose contracts that will give me flexibility. Just now my stepson (who is abroad) had to get something resolved and I was able to put down my work to skype with him, talk to his father, and help him out. I also make it a point to network with other moms and get out at least once a week with SAH friends or do other activities. We (DD and I) both need the interaction and change of pace. Though we have kind of a loose schedule, simple things like getting up around the same time, getting dressed, getting a shower on regular basis help me feel more human and productive.

When we decided to get pregnant is when we made the decision that I would be a SAHM. Not once in my 16 yrs of being mom have I felt trapped.

My hubby has always been in sales and travels a lot. I've always been his right hand man at paperwork, travel arrangements, etc.

We now run our own company in the same industry (non MLM, direct marketing, etc... legit, raw materials industry with sales in the 3 Million range per year) I run all the Quickbooks, insurance and taxes along with the travel, etc. Our daughter is is an officer of the company and involved with decision making, business plans, etc. We are a team.

We have always been planners, especially financially, and we have made some good solid business decisions that enables us to have our own company and work for ourselves, not answer to anyone else.

What works for one person does not necessarily work for another. You have to figure out what is right for your family.

I stay home with my 3 (ages almost 6, 4 and 2). I do not feel trapped. I enjoy about 75% of my day, which is more than I enjoyed when I was working (at least the last few years I was working). I never really liked a desk job so I was happy to leave it and stay home.

Being home has given us freedom to do somethings we wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

My husband is a consultant and works a lot of hours some weeks. He also travels with little notice. We did talk about me getting a part time job last year when he was going through a slow period, but after lengthy discussions decided that we needed me home because when he is busy, he is only here for dinner (sometimes not even that) and often travels. Any thing I would do for work would need to be pretty flexible.

Anyway - my husband has a good job, loves it, and works hard.

The only thing I miss about working is being around adults more - happy hour - and having a reason to look nice during the day :)

J.

Well I'm a SAHM to two kids.
I actually didn't want to quit my job. When we had our 1st baby I planned on going back to work part-time after my maternity leave was up. But I had to quit because my son was too clingy and neither him or my hubby could handle me being at work.
So for the last 2 years or so, I've been a SAHM. My hubby makes an Ok salary. We aren't in debt, are in the process of buying a house, but we live pretty slim. No going out to eat, play etc.

I honestly MISS working. I love my babies and I love that I can be here with them when so many mommies can't. If I could find some job that I could do, either from home, or on times when my hubby wasn't working I would do it in a heartbeat.
Some days I feel "trapped" but it's more bored and lonely.
Hopefully though, we will have a house with a yard to help on those bored days.

I am sure most the answers are mixed lol. Sometimes I feel trapped but also because I am in another country with no family and very few friends. My husband is in the army so we travel a lot. We are here in Korea for 2 years we have an almost 1 year old boy and another son due in May. So as you can tell I feel a little overwhelmed. I loved working at my job at Macy's before I met my husband. I worked as a sales associate. Granted I still lived at home, I did pay my own car, car insurance and cell phone. Sometimes it was rough because I didn't always make enough to cover all my bills on my own. then when I met my husband (whom I met online) we hit it off. Got married almost right away and I got pregnant a few months after we got married. He deployed before I got pregnant but when he came home for R&R that's when I got pregnant.
Then he got to come home early because of the reduction they had. So thankfully he was home for the birth. Now being in another country I wish I had my family to help me. My friends are doing all they can but I don't like to bother them to much because they have families of their own too. But before my husband left for deployment i had transferred to be closer to home to a different Macy's, because of safety reason's I quit my job and ever since then he's been taking care of the family and that's been almost 2 years now.

I think there are probably as many answers to this question as there are mothers!
For me, what seemed right, was to switch from FT to PT work once I had my son. 8 years later it still feels right to me.
Personally, for me, I think working at home with a toddler would be very difficult. With a newborn--easier.
You have to be organized and motivated to make it work.
I do, at times, work "from home" but I find it very easy to get distracted by chores, etc.