Career or Career Break? Help & Advice Please!!

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i have been back at work for 6 months now after my second child. for the first few months i really enjoyed being back. new boss who is really great and so flexible with me. i work with a great team, in a glamorous industry and have some lovely customers. however the past 4 months my emotional state has been up and down, every couple of weeks. there are days when i really struggle to motivate myself to work! ive thought about a career break but i just cant do it.
my son is at school and my daughter at nursery, both very happy children.
the lack of motivation is very out of character for me. so have been thinking could this be down to depression? or even the onset of menopause...
i look at stay at home mums and i really admire them so much. i just feel like i have always worked and if i give up i may massively regret it...

Could you just be knackered?

yes i am tired most days! however this feeling of low and generally demotivated to work is not like me. thanks for your reply :)

My feeling is that being at home full-time is an excellent way to totally scupper your future career. Not all employers are welcoming after a long career-break. Now that the novelty of being back in the swim of things has worn off I suspect tiredness is taking over. Maybe you'll feel differently after the Christmas break, once the days start getting longer again.

If it can be afforded maybe a couple of sessions with a counsellor could help in sorting out why you are feeling de-motivated.

"A glamorous industry" and lovely customers. How I envy you!

In my experience, you will really regret giving up your job completly when youre in your forties, kids grown up or at secondary school and youre vored/poor and essentially unemployable. I know so many women in this position who are bitterly regretying being SAHPs for years. Always keep your hand in is my advice.

I'm on the other side to quite a few posters. OP, I worked in an industry I love (somewhat glamorous) and had (some!) customers I loved but really felt at the end of my maternity leave I couldn't go back. I'm now looking to go back, and yes I expect some employers will be a bit cold about my time away. I feel really positive about my time off and always frame it in the context of 'I did it so when I came back I'd be fully ready to commit', so far I haven't had any negative feedback and I had a really positive interview last week.

I wouldn't suggest being a SAHP as a way to escape motivation issues or emotional ups and downs - being at home can be really tiring, you don't have colleagues to get energy from and socially it can be lonely. You get almost zero positive feedback, no pay rises, no good reviews. You're children sound happy and you sound positive about your job - maybe consider talking to someone about the emotional ups and downs and resolving that before deciding what to do?

What great advice, was considering talking to someone so will definitely do that. Thank you for taking the time to write

How great you had time off as SAHP. May I ask how long you took off?

I've had 4 years off (including a year of maternity leave) - so maybe slightly less time than some of the other instances posters are talking about. After my latest interview I'm considering taking another year (family member isn't in great health), so will likely be 5 years in total. I've loved it, but there have been plenty of hard days and lots of lonely ones. When I left my previous industry (publishing) I knew I wouldn't go back and would be happy to go into something at a much lower level.