Transition to Motherhood

Everyone asks whether I'll be going back to work. I plan on being a stay-at-home mom. I don't want a daycare worker raising my kid. I also want to be able to breastfeed, and it's much easier to do that at home. I know a young mother who pays over $850 a month in childcare for her one-year-old. My reaction to that is, what's the point? Save your money and enjoy watching your son grow up instead! I've never heard any parent look back and say, "I wish I had spent more time at the office." My boss has been surprisingly understanding. He says he'll be sorry to lose me, but he couldn't think of a better reason for me to quit. He and his wife both work full time, but their daughter has had the same live-in nanny since she was three months old. He tells me there will be times when I want to come back just to do something different, and he'll keep me on the payroll in case I want to work an occasional evening. I told him that I don't doubt there will be times when the idea is appealing. Everyone knows the term "working mother" is redundant, and being on 24-hour call for a helpless infant is far harder than any outside career. But it's not about what I want, it's about what the baby needs. And babies need their mothers. Those first five years, especially, are so important.