The Balancing Act

I grew up in a comfortable, middle class environment but like many other families in our community, both of my parents worked hard to make ends meet. I honestly don’t believe any of my close friends while I grew up had a stay at home parent. And as I grew up, whenever I thought about having children, the idea of being at home never entered my mind as being an option.

Even when I got pregnant in 2007, I took for granted that I would be a working mother like many of my peers. Financially speaking, it made most sense for me to remain employed and for my husband to be the stay at home parent. I had worked so hard over the years gain the recognition and respect of my colleagues and believed that I would never willingly give that up. I planned to take my generous 3 month maternity leave and then return to my career as an IT infrastructure analyst in the financial software industry.

Before I became a parent, I thought I would be bored doing “nothing” other than taking care of the baby. (Yeah, you may smack me now.) I quickly discovered that “taking care of the baby” meant that there was never nothing to do! And, as tough as taking care of my daughter was, I also realized that I enjoyed being home with her. Being home with her meant that I missed nothing of her new baby moments. Every day, my daughter grew and changed, learning something new every day.  I realized that I did not want to miss even a moment of her life and began to seriously dread my return to the working world.