For the mums who went back to work when their kids were 1-2 years old, did you have to?

[Watermocha]

When your kids were 1 or 2 years old, did you have to go back to work because you financially couldn’t afford to stay at home or did you go back so you don’t sacrifice your career progression/ job benefits?

And with the huge childcare expense was it overall worth it?

Neither really. The bills would still have all been paid on one income, but it was about future proofing. It would've been a harder call if it had been a choice between SAH and FT, but luckily both of us were able to work around DC.

Very much worth it. But we also had family help with childcare, which skews the equation!

I guess it would have just about been possible with a lot of state help. At the time I earned about 3 times what DH did though so would have been a huge drop in income/ lifestyle. I went back full time and DH went very part time which worked well for us.