work or SAHM? not really sure what to do...

[OhWhatAPalaver]

hello all, my maternity allowance runs out in august, i was only a temp when we had DD (now 6 months old) and therefore wasn't entitled to maternity leave or statutory maternity pay and now i am left with no job to go back to.

which brings me to my dilemma; do i start looking for a new job? or should i be a SAHM for now? i really don't like the idea of palming DD off to a nursery 5 days a week and i definitely don't want to go back to work before she's one. i don't have a career as such, i'm more concerned about money, i'm wondering how we will cope with loosing 500 quid a month. we already get some (but not much) housing benefit but DP is working more lately and we now get working tax and child tax credits so the housing ben will no doubt go down as well...

would be nice to hear from both SAHM's and working mums to get an idea of the pro'd and con's of each as i really haven't a clue what to do for best. originally i didn't really want to go back to work until DD was at school but i'm kinda feeling more pressured to look for something recently for some reason. possibly cos all the other mum's i know are going on about going back to work soon!

Oh what don't go back to work because others are. You said it was a money thing, look at what you can earn and how much childcare costs factor in things like tax credits etc to give yourself a financial answer. If I had had a choice I would have stayed at home until they went to school and then worked partime, I had 8 months off and then went back fulltime. Work or not working does make you a bad or good mum.

I would think about how long you can leave it until you will make it difficult for yourself to get back into work. 6 months is very young. Can you reassess at 1 year or more? Take a mental break (unless it will be too hard financially to delay going back) & enjoy your baby.

childminding?

i think i will leave it for the time being and see how the finances go - having a mental break sounds good :) hopefully DP's wages and tax credits etc will cover us for the foreseeable future!

Still struggling with same dilemma with DD now 2.5 (see separate post). Couldn't find a decent part-time job that paid enough to cover childcare and be worthwhile so went back full-time and ended up signed off with stress after 4 months of anguish, guilt and misery. Some mums are happiest working and make this work for them and their kids. There is no right answer to home versus childcare. However if your gut instinct and calling is to be at home, and you can make ends meet that way, then be a SAHM mum and to hell with what anyone else is doing. Research shows that what makes mum happy works well for the kids too.

Good luck!

I had a similar situation a few months back and decided to retrain so that I could work from home a few days a week. I now do three days of work a week spread over seven days which means that I spend a few hours working every day (sometimes after bedtime) and spend most of my day with my two DDs.

It worked for us financially because the cost of childcare would have taken my whole pay.

You could consider jobs like book keeping, photography, face painting for parties, home baking for shops, childminding etc. Or start your own small busienss - my friend does baby massage classes and baby yoga classes from home for an hour every morning of the week.

Tricky decisions!

J x

I chose to sahm but we couldn't really afford it. i am now finding it nigh on impossible to get a job. Relationship took brunt of financial fuck up. I'd do it again though