So come on girls, we should surely have figured it all out by now. Why does it have to be so difficult to have a happy child and also a fulfilling job? Yes, its the old favourite of whether to return to work or not. I ditched my well paid, rewarding job for which I had trained for 6 years for because I could not bear to leave my DD of 12 months with a nanny or childminder full time. Thought it was what i wanted but have increasingly been missing bits of my 'old' life - using my brain, having an excuse to put make-up and nice clothes. Should never have quit but with the state of the economy I fear I'll never get a similar job back again. I fear if i continue to be a full time SAHM I will quite simply become a total obsessive about totally unimportant stuff. But I look at DD and I can't bear the thought of sticking her in a nursery full time, from 8am until 6pm, 4 days a week (no flexitime possible, previously worked as a lawyer for megabank). Why can't I have it all? Keep having crazy ideas about starting my own business, along with literally hundreds of other women out there. I have been going round and round with this since she was about 6 months old, I fear I am on the brink of insanity... Mothers who have been there before me, tell me the answer.