To Work, or Not to Work

by Sara

After I had my first child, I wanted to quit my job. I couldn’t imagine leaving my three-month-old baby with a stranger. Work just seemed so unimportant at the time. But I did go back to work after maternity leave and I am so glad I did. I wish I knew then, what I knew now — that working is fulfilling, motivating and has helped me to be a better mom. Like me, so many new moms struggle with this life decision, to work, or not to work. Choosing to go back to work is a very personal, emotional and for many, a financial decision — and this new study illustrates the stress that it puts on moms.

NerdWallet​, the leading personal finance advisory site, polled pregnant women and moms with teenage children, and asked them both similar questions related to financial fears surrounding motherhood. The findings were eye-opening:

• 48.9% of expectant moms struggle with the decision of whether to go back to work as soon as possible or stay home with their child.
• In retrospect, 27.2% of moms of teenagers wished that they had stayed at home as long as they could with their child, while only 6.2% of respondents wished that they had gone back to work as soon as possible.
• Both groups of mothers agreed on one financial issue: the choice to go back to work for additional income is the number one reason they fight with their spouse.

“Couples face a Catch-22 choice to pay for daycare now or pay for college later,” said Farnoosh Torabi, a correspondent at NerdWallet. “The financial pressures at each end of a parent’s journey to raise their children are growing.”

Clearly, finances are among the top “stressers” when having children. The difficult decison to stay at home competes with the desire to continue a career and ease the economic fallout of having a child.

Here is an infographic that NerdWallet created to illustrate the rising cost of college for the next 18 years and how much money parents need to save in a 529 account if they’d like to contribute to their child’s education.

This should give every Working Mom a little sense of pride, and piece of mind, knowing we did it and are doing it all — we went back to work, are raising our kids, and contributing to their education.  Go Train Moms!