If
you're a working woman during your pregnancy, at some point, you'll
think about when or if you'll return to work after your baby arrives.
For some, it's an easy answer. For others, it's a decision that's
anguished over for months. Even if you're a working parent, you may
face this decision any time after your child is born.
Staying Home
is an excellent guide for any mother grappling with this decision
and transition whether it immediately after delivery or years later.
Throughout the book, the authors have included sidebars with charts
or lists that provide additional information, quotes from other moms,
and questions to help you explore your feelings. One the best sidebars
is Issues to Consider When Making Your Decision which includes
questions to ask yourself concerning: Financial Considerations; Job
Satisfaction; Job Attachment; Life-style Considerations; Is the Money
Yours, Mine or Ours?; Pressures on the Working Spouse; How Can We
Keep an Equal-Rights Household?; Personal and Parental Goals; Spousal
Support; Support from Family and Friends; and What is Best For Our
Child or Children.
Recognizing how
difficult it can be to make the transition from a full time professional
to full-time mother at home, the authors discuss ground rules for
life as an at-home mother followed by how to apply them in your every
day life. Self-esteem is heavily emphasized as they counter motherhood
myths such as Motherhood Myth Number 3: The work mothers and homemakers
do doesn't have worth . . . "At-home mothers who see themselves
as the family servant or 'just a housewife' are doing themselves and
their new profession a terrible disservice." They suggest applying
"Ground Rule #3: Validate yourself. Tell people that your current
job is full-time mother, homemaker or whatever term you prefer. Never
preface that term with 'just a'; that is how you invalidate yourself.
This book includes
a chapter called Putting Your Marriage on a New Footing which
is so important since the transition from full time employee to full
time at-home mother affects the entire family. The authors suggest
that, "The goal is to find ways for you and your husband to take a
team approach and depend on each other rather than having someone
be the boss. It is possible to live in a 'traditional family' while
preserving the equality and mutual respect of the best modern marriages."
Strategies for delegating household chores, dealing with feelings
of dependency, managing on a reduced income, and changing financial
expectations are also discussed.
Staying
Home concludes with networking ideas, extensive support group
lists, work options and the survey used to write the book.
To Purchase:
• Staying Home at Amazon.com
• Staying Home at Amazon.UK
• Staying Home at Amazon Canada
Related links
Book review
by StorkNet Staff
