I gave up work when I had DS now 18 months, currently pregnant with 2nd due early next year. I mainly stopped working as DH works away a lot of the time and days when he is away I’d be the one doing the mornings, nursery drop off, pick up, bedtime etc as well as working a full day. Plus I didn’t want to have to send my children to nursery 5 days a week, we have no family near us to help out at all with childcare.
Financially DH earns significantly more than I could ever earn so there was never any discussion of him working less. He absolutely loves his job whereas I was always just plodding on with mine.
The issue is I struggled quite badly with PND, I think this got worse around 9-12 months when all mum friends started going back to work and I felt like I lost my network a bit. I’m worried of getting PND again this time around. I can’t help but think things would be a bit easier if I worked at least part time and had a bit of a mental break from parenting. Although in a lot of ways I’d also be making things more difficult for myself and adding the stress of a job. I’ve not mentioned it to DH yet, mainly as I’ve not worked it out myself.
Would you go back to work if you were me? Obviously I’d have to look for a new job once the new baby is 9-12 months.