If you’ll be given a choice to be a working mom or be a plain housewife, what will you choose? If money is not a problem, I’d definitely say I want to be a plain housewife in a heartbeat! I’d love to spend every waking day and witness every milestone with Gwen. But then again, there are realities I have to deal aside from financial reasons.
Update August 2018: From a working mother to a SAHM
Reasons why I work
- Money. Jeff and I wanted to live a comfortable life, he can provide with all our needs even if I don’t work but I think it’s practical these days that women should also help in earning for the family. The additional income can later on be used for vacation and leisure trips, life insurance, savings and investments, luxuries, etc. I’ll talk more about this later.
- To have some extra to spend on whatever. Sorry, can’t think of an appropriate word. Just a background, my mother is a housewife and Papa is a seaman. Papa will just send allotment (a portion of his salary) monthly to pay for the bills, our school baon, and groceries. I have no idea on the amount, but I think it’s just enough. If my brother and I wants an expensive toy (which may be out of the budget), Nanay’s reply will always be, “Pagdating ng Papa nyo.” Hindi ko lang alam baka excuse lang ni Nanay yun para hindi namin sya kulitin, hmmm… But my point is, I want to have my own earned money so that if I want to buy something, or Gwen wants something, I don’t have to ask money or permission to spend from my husband. Nakakahiya lang kasi to spend someone else’s money on impractical things like make-up, accessories, clothes, and other abubots only women will understand. In our family, Jeff takes care of the basic needs, Gwen’s milk, diapers, clothes, school expenses. The grocery is on me because I love doing the grocery at kung anu-ano kasi nadadampot ko kahit di na kelangan like chocolates. Kaya para walang tanong why I spend a thousand pesos on chocolates alone, ako na lang in charge sa grocery. We also like to travel, so I’m the one who pays for our tickets and accommodation on our vacation.
- For my and my husband’s SANITY. I got to preview the life of just staying at home during my maternity leave. While I really enjoyed being a mom and breastfeeding her exclusively, there were telltale signs that being at home for a long time wasn’t for me. The first week was fine, but the riot started after two weeks of staying at home. I got upset when he came home and told me he already ate at the mall (Nainggit ako, haha). I noticed that staying at home made me impatient, irritable, and unreasonable. I easily got angry on petty things. So when my maternity leave was over and I came back to work, I felt normal again. I bet Jeff’s happy too.
To each his own, and I’m sure WAHMs and SAHMs have wonderful reasons why they stay that way. But this works for me.
I’d love to hear your own reasons. What works for you?
As of the moment, I am a SAHM. But the transition from being a working girl to SAHM IMO was really hard especially when I opt no to have a nanny anymore. Sakit sila sa ulo promise and nasstress na rin ako kakahanap ng matino na yaya. Mas at peace pa ako na kami lang family sa bahay eventhough there are moments na nagiging monster mom ako dahil sa toddler stage nila. But despite it, I enjoy it. Being a SAHM is never easy but its worth it and this works for me. 🙂
what works for me, or at least what I want to work for me, is to be a work-at-home mom, but with yayas/helpers around! that way, I can still see my kids during the day but also exercise my mind and make income at the same time. i don’t mind being homebound that much, in fact, i prefer it! I just hope I can sustain this set-up and make enough so I won’t need to look for a full-time office job.
there’s a longer version of this answer in this link, but it’s a little emo so consider yourself warned 😀 http://rinabee.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/lessons-from-a-temporary-hopefully-stay-at-home-mom/
I hear you, Badet. Reason #3 is same as mine too. para akong mabubuang sa bahay lang. :S
To each her own talaga sis…Ako kasi alam kong kaya ko maging SAHM or WAHM. di pa nga lang time…:-D
I am a single mom so I have no choice in the matter.. LOL! Kidding aside, I was and still am a workaholic. I enjoy what I do and I love the challenges of the corporate life. Yun nga lang, right now, medyo hinay hinay ako sa pagiging workaholic ko because I also don’t want to sacrifice my time with my son since kids grow up so fast these days. 🙂
Work moms are just women who can’t handle being a full time mom.
Rina, yes, exercising my mind is one benefit of working too. Well, answering a toddler’s endless questions is also a crazy exercise :p
I beg to disagree. Work moms should not be any less compared to full time moms. All moms want the best for her family. It’s just not everyone is cut out to do all the housework but excels in other things.
“Plain house mom”? Seriously. Stay at home mothers don’t get enough credit. House mothers don’t just stay home and sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing. One day a lot of working mothers are going to look back and wish they would have stayed at home and spent as much time with their kids. I’m lucky to have that opportunity to be a stay at home mother. To me it is a privilege and I’m enternally blessed. I suppose it is a matter of opinion, but in mine, whether it’s working mothers or stay at home mothers, as long as they are doing all they can as parents, they rock.