I'm experiencing some mommy guilt although I only work 30 hours (3 ten hour days) and I'm curious to different stances on both situations. I would love to stay home but my husband thinks we couldn't do it financially( I disagree and feel like he is the one that spends more /likes his material things). For me all I want is to be a mom and I'm ok with cutting way down. It's so hard being away from my 10 month old and our day care is a disaster. I'm also new to discovering "attachment parenting" and what it all means.
Re: Stay at home vs daycare
Sounds like a conversation you need to have with your husband.
I work 4 days and get 3 days home with my kids and I'm really happy with this. I enjoy the balance between working and being with my family. I like bringing in money but I'm glad to have one day off a week. I don't want to cut way back on things we enjoy or things we get from having 2 incomes. For me, the balance we have works great for our family.
I'm also lucky in the fact that I have great childcare for both of my kids. If I wasn't happy with that then I would be making some changes albeit working less or finding a new daycare/school.
This isn't a decision for anyone to make other than you and your husband and it's not an easy one. Do what makes you happy because you won't get this time with your child back. Good luck.
Having 1 child, it still made sense to work, but it sucked. We both do shifts (pilot, ER RN), so I was waking her up at 5am one day, another I was picking her up from a sitter at 1:30am only to wake her up again getting her into the house. Now with 2, I would be paying more than DH makes on child care.
I decided to stay home because I love it. We homestead-I sew, bake, feed the chickens and pig, work on the garden-all things I can do with children. I started offering childcare from my home, and by summer I'll be bringing home more than I did working full time (I'll be doing childcare plus occasional shifts at work).