I know some of you might be wondering, just who is this mommy? Is she a working mom? A stay-at-home-mom? Ah, labels… love them or hate them, they are here to stay. Well, for those who need to know, I am a full-time, stay-at-home mom, but it didn’t start out that way.

At first I attempted to juggle working my career from inside and outside the home during my first year as a mom. That was after my maternity leave ended once my son turned three-months old. At the time and for months following, I had no second set of hands, no nannies, and no mother helpers to assist with the effort. I did solicit the occasional family member to help us out when I needed to go into my physical office; later on in the third act of this juggling routine, I hired another friend to baby-sit T for a few hours a day just a handful of days a week (I worked full-time hours). While the workload most times called for more hands on deck, my pay simply didn’t justify that sort of luxury or expense.

Ultimately after a year of the juggling, and assessing that the cons (financial and mental, neither were paying well for the effort exerted) far outweighed the pros of our situation, I resigned my job. As a result, I successfully eliminated a HUGE stress on me and our family by cutting loose a job simply no longer fit my or my family’s lifestyle. In other words, the job no longer fit into our “real time” situation. Oh and please don’t get me wrong, my day as a full-time, stay-at-home-mom is not anywhere near stress-free. It’s just, well, an extremely different type of stress, and one that I seem better equipped to focus my full effort and attention.

Before having a child, I’d probably have been the first to tell you I’d never choose to become a full-time, stay-at-home-mom. But once I was actually inside of the decision, doing this mom thing full-time called to me, more than my career of 10+ years ever did, and I haven’t looked back – yet.  Of course there are moments I wish I could transport myself back to my office world, and not just because my day isn’t going as well as intended, but because I actually liked my job very, very much, and I enjoyed working in my particular career very, very much. Eventually I do see myself returning to paying work, someday, maybe in a year or two, maybe sooner, perhaps even later. Stay tuned.

So I’ve lived a little of all worlds thus far – working mom, work-at-home mom, stay-at-home mom – and let me just sign off the subject with this (as this is NOT a blog about the mommy wars, no thanks, not interested): there are pros and cons of every parenting situation, and each mom needs to decide for herself where she and her family are happiest. So go, find your happy, not just for you but for your family’s situation! We are pretty darn content with the decisions we’ve made to get to where we are right now, it’s still working for us, and I look forward to what may come in the future should – I mean, when – our situation changes.