Tough Decissions

To work or not to work, that is the question. It is a tough call and a conscientious decision that is made by husband and wife. There are many reasons why a mother will go back to work or not to go back to work. It is even harder when outsiders judge the mother without knowing the full scenario.

Now I am a working mom who works outside the home as well as inside the home at night. I get to do both and work very hard. I splurged this year and have a babysitter to come to my house instead of sending my baby to someone else. I felt that he would benefit the one on one attention, and being in his own environment instead of with many other kids of different ages. He is my first baby that I was not home for at this age. I feel guilty already without having others tell me about their point of view on this subject matter. It is my choice and reasoning and no one else can really understand it. I am happy that at least I am able to have the babysitter in my house, as opposed to sending the baby out all day.

There are many benefits of having someone in your house. Right now is a great time to have a babysitter in the house, opposed to sending them out. All my kids are off from school now, so I am not paying extra to have someone else watch all of them. They have about a week off from school and she is there to entertain them and take them out to the park. She arranged play dates after I left her with a few phone numbers and when the kids received a call, she took care of it. This alone is a relief off of my back. Last year I moved into to my mom’s house, and on erev Pesach, I left her with two kids. Trust me, I have received numerous comments on how wrong it was for me to do what I did. But reality is my mom didn’t say no, and then made me run tons of errands for her when I did get back from work without my kids. So it was not as bad as you think. Had she said no, I wouldn’t have gone to work. Now I have someone here to watch them while I go to work.

I keep losing my train of thought while I stop writing this and work.

Next week is chol hamoed. I am not sure yet what I am going to do. I told my boss I was taking off two days and she was fine with whatever I chose. I said I feel bad leaving the kids on chol hamoed. I am not so sure now what I am going to do about it. I am still thinking if I will take an extra day off and stay with them. It is not like they will be alone. They will do things with my family, but I can still have that Jewish mother guilt. Maybe I will hook up with a friend or two. Maybe I can see if I can bring work home and do work at night so it won’t be the worst thing to take off so many days. I also need to factor in Succos and what I am going to do then.

Gotta run, good gossip going on here and I want to listen to what is going on. Maybe it will be a new topic for me, Jewish children vs. non-Jewish children.

Happy cleaning!