A.M.
Deciding to stay at home takes lots of sacrifice and discipline. I suggest doing a trial run now that you're pregnant but still working. Cut down your budget on unnecessary stuff - you know which ones those are: cable, cellphones, eating out; Starbucks; movies/rentals; shopping, home living (do you own your home; can you rent and live somewhere smaller/less expensive) etc. If you have new cars, consider selling them (Carmax) or trading them in for smaller/older/less expensive sedans that are completely paid for. This takes sacrifice and discipline. And when you cut your budget down....try to live NOW on your husband's paycheck alone. And save ALL of your paycheck until you leave for maternity leave.
Now when your baby comes, you'll have all this savings to live off of for a few months w/o having to worry.... and you'll be disciplined enough to keep living on the smaller budget.
Trust me -- it's worth it. The sacrifices are tough, especially living in a wealthy part of DFW where materialism is everywhere. But what's more important to you.... stuff, owning stuff, taking care of stuff, storing stuff;;;; or staying home w/your baby.
You have the rest of your life to have STUFF, own stuff, store stuff (big cars, homes) -- trust me babies don't care how big the house is; what neighborhood you're in; what car you drive -- they care about where Mommy is, why is Mommy leaving me, I want Mommy!
You have the rest of your life to buy stuff -- but only these few SHORT first years of your child's life - you won't get this time back. And they go by sooo quickly. If you truly want to stay home with your child -- go for it full strength 100%. Try hard and be disciplined! Your child deserves a good try from Mom and Dad.
We were a 2 income family before my baby came.... and when we found out we were pregnant, we started this plan (I read a few books about how to plan to stay home - how to change your budget and your viewpoints about money/materialism) .... We trimmed our budget so much.... we lived in a one-bedroom apartment (very inexpensive!); continued to drive our OLD paid off cars (didn't buy new ones although we had the $ to buy new ones).... we didn't have cellphones and we didn't have cable/sattelite. We read books! ha! We rarely went out to eat - one time a week at the most. For 9 months, we lived off my husband's paycheck - which wasn't much at that time. And we saved all of my paycheck during that time. And didn't touch that savings! Then when my son was born -- we had blessings pour in. My husband got a slight pay raise. We were able to buy a home (but didn't go overboard in our ability to buy BIG homes - we bought one that we could still pay for while just on hubby's paycheck)..... and we were able to live off my savings for a few months (actually I figured the first year of his life - I'd be home w/him).....
But more blessings poured in right when he turned one.... hubby got a great job opportunity w/bigger pay!
Did I mention we prayed about this the whole time..??? That was my constant prayer was to be home with my kids while they are young and that I prayed God would provide for us. And he really poured blessings on us, but we had to show God that we really were serious about this. We sacrificed because we seriously wanted this. While all our friends were in huge NEW homes; new Big fancy cars; new this new that; fancy cellphones.... we were happy to say that we were living debt-free and living on one income.
I know many stay-at-home moms and I've never heard of any "legitimate" stay at home jobs. I don't think that exists or else everyone would do that. Everyone wants to work from home. I think most of those jobs require selling and/or recruiting others to be under you (like a pyramid business).
You can stay home if you truly put the effort into it. You have a husband that provides with a great job. Good luck and God bless!
