The Pros and Cons on being a Stay at Home Mother

As I previously introduce myself on my first ever post, I am a stay at home mom with no household helper at all. As I have said, there are happy moments and struggle moments on being a stay at home mom. Here are some of the Pros and Cons on being a stay at home mom.

Let’s start with the Pros:

1.    You can spend quality time with your child.

If you’re a full time mother, you spend more time with your child since you’re at home and you’re child see you every day. You became close to them, you take care of them, and you know their wants, favorites and needs. Then, you’re child tends to be clingy on you which is somehow may be a good thing.

2.       You are the boss.

You tend to be their boss. They follow you everywhere and follow your command and rules. You set your own rules and regulation at home. You decide when it’s time to do homework and when will be play time. You set when TV time is over.

3.       You are aware of your child’s status

You know what your child’s needs are. You are aware of his situation in school or how he interacts with other people. is he sociable? Is he an introvert type of person? Does he have assignments or projects to be done? Is he good in school? What are the improvements that he has to make at school or for himself?

4.       You make improvements for your child

Since he knows that you are his mother. At a young age they tend to listen at times. And it’s okay to discipline them every now and then for their own good. If say, for example your child is bad in Math, you can make ways, use some of his toys so that he can understand more and have fun doing Math. He’s having fun as well as bonding with you.

And here are some of the Cons that I myself have encountered:

1.       No Time for Yourself

No “Alone” moments. Since your child depends on you so much, especially when they are still a toddler or a kid, there would be a very few moments that you are alone, sometimes you can’t even check your phone or go to the bathroom and pee. As I’ve said they are so clingy, for a toddler they just want to be carried at times when they want to go to sleep and you’re not sleepy yet or there are still things that you need to do, you can’t do that. There is no time management here, you will tend to change time every now and then depends on your child needs. For me, I have two so If the other wants to sleep and the other wants to play there can be a problem, it’s a demise we, as a mother, have to go through.

2.       You spend most of the time at home

Since you have no household helper and there will be no one to take care of your child at times. You tend to be a homebody. One of your friends asked you to come see them, you have to think it over, and you’d ask them: where are we going? Is it child friendly environment? And the list goes on… It may be a nice thing or struggle that depends on your personality (introvert/extrovert)

3.       Money Issue

Since you are working at home and you have no boss but yourself. Well, there’s no boss, not literally employed in a company, so you rely on your partner’s salary for your expenses. You can only rely on one person’s salary for the family’s basic needs. If you have a big family and only your partner has a job, well it’s really a tough one. You tend to be frugal, since you only have a limited budget for your family, whereas if the two of you are employed you have a fair share of expenses.

4.       Your time depends on your child

Since I have a child going to school already, even if I wanted to have a time frame, the moment will still depend on them. Your time frame would always change depending on the situation. Let say, monthly examination (not all monthly examination is on the 5^th of the month, today it’s on the 3^rd, next month it will be a different schedule), another thing, the school programs also changes every year, and so forth. For my toddler also, even if we had a daily routine, the time depends on his wants and needs, sometimes before Lunch he’s already asleep, sometimes he sleeps at 2:00 PM, even if I carry him, I cuddle him, if he don’t want to sleep, he won’t sleep so I let him sleep on his own. I don’t force him to sleep. It would be stressful for me as well. If he wants to play I let him, if he wants to take a nap, I let him.

Being a stay at home mom, has its wonderful moments and struggle. We just have to go with the flow. We just have to make sure that for whatever decision that we make, it would be for the best interest of our family. How about you moms, have you experience any of these? Please comment below. Thank You.