Why did you return to work?

[belfie]

Great thread - interesting to see what people have done.

I've just started mat leave (this week ) so my plans are all theoretical. I've applied for 12 months mat leave (3 mths paid), and I plan to return p/t (which my work will support). My reasons for going back are a few:

• I've always enjoyed my work, and I'd like to "keep my hand in". I have also seen girlfriends get "stuck" outside the workforce and find it hard to get back in after a long break. I didn't do years at uni & postgrad studies just to lose touch with the workforce.
• I grew up with a SAHM mum with very low confidence (her mantra to us was always - if' it's too hard, don't do it!), and I think I always envied friends whose mums DID work & were more confident (not that the two are necessarily related)... but maybe I feel I can avoid being like my mum?
• If I DO go back p/t & have a subsequent PG, I can get the p/t paid mat leave again... nice! And there's lots of nice perks at the big corporate for which I work.
• I THINK (we'll see) that I'd like the me time...but who knows how I'll actually feel once the time comes!

So I'll let you know in 12 months how it really pans out! tehehe.

[Toomanytoomany]

Hi all,This question is directed at the mums out there who have returned to work post-baby. I am genuinely interested in your motivation for doing so!

Returning after dd#5 was purely monetary that I had to go back when she was four months old, part time. I found a dream job, full time, when she was eight months old.

After this one is born, I will have to go back to work as well - I'm hoping to manage at least six months off, and then hopefully just part time for the next six months. I don't know how my boss is going to manage with that. I can easily see how my job can be split.

I was a stay at home mum for the first ten years of parenthood. I enjoyed it and it was important to me, but it was great to get my career started too, and I don't want to lose that.

[Cally]

I'm going back full time in 3 weeks and will have had just over 12 months home.

Part of the reason is financial, we have an investment property with a large mortgage, but I am also looking forward to having more grown up time. I'm going full time as I work in a construction related industry with a lot of deadlines and feel that part time would be too difficult to manage.

Probably the biggest reason is that it took me 15 months to get this job, I'm in the public service so have great benefits and I would hate to lose all that. So even if we didn't have the mortgage I would be going back to work, although may negotiate more with work re part time.

The main things I am going to miss about being at home is spending time with DD, but am concerned that she may miss out on things ie swimming lessons which we currently go to each week as there aren't any on the weekends.

[AliBaby]

Hey OP,
I am going to have to go back to work and am hoping to do a 5 day fortnight. Will be going back when baby is 6months old for financial reasons. I do like my job and work good hours so that works. What are you thinking your plans will be?

[Amethyst]

hmmm I took 12 months Mat leave and i thought i'd love being a SAHM but I really struggled with it.... I think it took me almost all of those 12 months before I could really say I loved being a SAHM. I was riddled with guilt and self-worth issues....and I wish I had just let up on myself and enjoyed that year with DD. Anyway, at the end of my mat leave, my employer wanted me back full time and I just didnt want to do it. I had a great job, conditions and pay-wise, but i didnt love my job - it was very stressful and i was overworked and I was pretty certain nothing had changed since i went on leave! SO I ended up quitting which I am hoping proves to be the best move for me because its made me rethink my career path and I am planning on studying next year to become a teacher.....

But I was needing something to stop those self worth doubts and give me back a piece of my identity I guess, so I am working two 4 hour shifts at a supermarket and I am really enjoying it! The extra money is nice and the adult interaction/just getting out of the house and being me and not mum, has been really positive for me. I didnt need to work for financial reasons but mentally its been really worthwhile.

I still say I am a SAHM even though I work casually, So for me it was just to make me feel like I was contributing financially, even if its only a tiny small bit, and not mooching off DH and give me some pride back in myself. And for some reason it has made me a MUCH better SAHM - I am doing so much more around the house than I was when I wasnt working, I feel so much better and I now LOVE being a SAHM. I feel really lucky now!

[DisGirl]

I had 12 months off on maternity leave, going back when DS was 11.5 months old. I'm lucky that I get 6 months of full pay, which I take as 12 months half pay and THAT is the reason I came back. We were always planning on having two children close together and my plan was to come back for six months and then get another year off on full pay. I'm extremely lucky that my mum was and is more than happy to look after DS while I'm at work and they both enjoy themselves immensely. Turns out that I'll be taking 8 months off from being a SAHM rather than 6, which is a struggle physically for me, but the financial benefits far outweigh the cost right now.

We didn't REALLY need for me to go back to work to get by, but the benefits of the extra year's pay (8 months working/six months paid mat leave) will set us up far better for me working part time or not at all once my second lot of maternity leave is over.

The amazing bond between my mum and sister (she lives with my folks) and DS is a fantastic side-effect of all this as well

[*Twinkle*]

I went back to work when DD #1 was 5 months and went back 3 days a week part time, and with DD #2 I went back when she was 3months and it was fulltime as I go offered a job.