Our family will turn a large, stinking corner when Monday rolls around, as it will be the Petite Filet's first day back at work after 12 weeks of maternity leave. She'll go back to driving the Cutlet to school five days a week (instead of me driving him to his part-time schedule of three days) and I'll be taking the Riblet to his in-home childcare. None of this is easy for us. There are so many opinions on the work/daycare debate. "Why have kids if someone else is going to raise them?" "I can't believe you're not focusing more on your career." "How can you afford to do it? Why doesn't the PF just stay home with both kids?" "You suck, T-bone!"
I could tell you how we arrived at our decision, but it's all pretty boring. And our situation doesn't make us special; the world is populated with families in which both parents must work.
No matter how confident I am that this is the best thing, the right thing, just about the only thing we can do ... my heart will ache after kissing the Riblet on the forehead and heading off to work. My heart will ache until, a few minutes after 5, I'll latch his infant carrier into my car and we'll head home. Until we're all a family again, if only for a few hours, all under one roof, before we've got to do it all again. Magically craptastic!
It must be a hard decision, but your boys will know they are loved, you can hear it in words you write to us. That is what really matters.
"Why not have kids if you can get someone else is going to raise them?" "I can believe you're not focusing more on your career." "How can you afford not to do it? Why does the PF look bad because of someone else's own issues with parenting?" "You don't suck, T-bone!"
i altered your quotes. and i must say, it really p!sses me off when the mom gets insulted for not staying at home and the dad gets yelled at for not making enough for his wife to stay home. good parents think of these things and debate them all the time.
And I thought my life complicated trying to mix in a haircut with flexible work schedules....
yep, it's a fine line there dude. The final straw for us was the third kid. At that point Mrs Ferd was basically handing over her paycheck to the day care people so we didn't need her salary anyway. It was a pretty clear decision then.
Well darn! You WERE making this parenting stuff sound so easy!
I don't need any of the negatives...baseball season is just around the corner and that is when the trying (I think) shall begin!
:-) Good thing hubs doesn't frequent T-Bone. He needs nothing to add to the list of negatives.
Good luck to you and your fam. I know you are solid as a rock. You will smooth right in to this transition.
It is hard, but if you're dedicated to quality time with the children, it can also be quite successful. And I'm sure you both are.
Well, it looks like you guys are doing a good job of coming up with a plan and implementing it.
Children are a blessing. When you're 80 and surrounded by grandchildren at Thanksgiving, you'll know it was worth it. I'm sure you know it already!