Just reflecting on being relieved I never quit my job to stay home

When I was a new mom for the first time six years ago I felt a lot of pressure to stay home with my baby. I also really wanted to! It just felt like we belonged together and dropping her off at a daycare with people barely knew felt alien. To be honest I experienced a lot of jealousy toward people who were able to stay home with their babies.I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that it would all be okay and I was making the right decision. I can't do that so I thought I would post here in case other new parents are struggling with the choice :) Just to be totally clear I am not saying it's the right choice for every family and I think there's nothing wrong with staying home. But I literally never once heard from someone who chose to continue working (all the women in my family and in my in-laws stayed home) and felt good about the choice so I just wanted to share my reasons:Money! Money is the reason most people work. I made only about $30,000/year when my first baby was born, now after six years and a few transitions I am about to get a raise to $84,000.Preschool is actually pretty great! Spending a whole day with a baby was easy and fun (for me). Spending a whole day with a toddler started to become more of a chore. I noticed that in my area, even parents who stayed home started to put their kids in preschool around age 2.5-3 because the kids and parents enjoyed it so much.I feel good about the division of labor with my husband. We both contribute just about equally to cooking, cleaning, and childcare. I don't really enjoy cleaning and wouldn't like to do any more of it lol.Financial freedom. Maybe kind of a dark way to look at things but I like knowing that I stay in my marriage because I choose to, not because I can't afford to leave. To be honest we had some dark times and I wasn't sure we would make it, and I like knowing that I can take care of myself and our child without facing poverty.Just some of the bright sides to being a working mom that I wanted to share. Hope this is helpful to someone out there. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2LTvDvW