I am technically a Stay at home mom , but I babysit to make ends meet. I can NOT afford daycare . I have already done the math, I have been a stay at home mom for 5 + years , no work experience since 2007. I have only a technical college degree which doesn't go far. So most jobs , and with the economy the way it is I would be lucky to make 12.00 an hour. Putting both girls in daycare is about $400.00 full time a week, unless i can find a stay at home mom that will do it for about $300. 00 that would only leave me with about $150.00 a week if that. There's no way to survive on that. I don't get government assistants only because i know there are people in worse condition that need them more then I do. Anyways, I get by on what I make a week plus my girls are taken care of by their father.
Only thing about babysitting from home is if someone doesn't show I don't get paid. Yes I could have it in a contract but most of my parents only need me 2 days a week. This week I haven't worked that much, only 2 days really. I can honestly say I miss being a stay at home mom. I miss being able to pack up and go to the park and take a picnic, have playdates during the day. It has been so much fun. I have a lot of things to be grateful for. My kids are healthy, I'm healthy , we have food, a roof over our heads, we do well for ourselves but there's just some days I look at my friends that are stay at home moms and get jealous of what they have. I know that their life isn't perfect like they make it seem like on Facebook, but I do miss having someone at night to talk too, I miss just being able to devote 100% of my time to my children like I always wanted too. I miss being a part of a moms group. I wanted to homeschool them as well and now that plan has changed as I am doing homeschool kindergarten I am waiting for my other daughter to be able to go to school. I know some of my friends enjoy working and believe me I can't wait until I can actually go get a real job with steady income, benefits , retirement. In my heart I knew i always wanted to be a stay at home mom for as long as I could and now that my journey has changed. I have embraced it, but some days are harder then others. You always think you have your life figured out and it could change just in a short period of time, like mine did.
