What are your Job/Career plans after delivery?

juliehollz13

I am currently working 2 jobs, and once the baby is here I plan to quit my "day" job and solely work from home. I've already planned to stop working 1 job in 2017 because having 2 full time jobs is just getting too stressful after 2 years + decent day care in our area is 1200-1500 per month and that's just way too much money, but of course it will be a significant drop in income. What are your plans for after the baby comes? Have you looked into daycare's or will have a family member watch the baby? (I also found out alot of good daycare's already have a waiting list into early 2017!  ), or will you stay home? Any budgeting goals or plans for the next 8 months? We really want to pay off debt, refinance DH's car and HOPEFULLY get a used SUV for me, I currently have an itty bitty kia rio that will barely fit a carseat and groceries. 

SchruteBucks

I also have two jobs I run an in-home daycare out of my house and do data entry in the evenings and weekends from home.  I'll close my daycare for about 2 or 3 weeks after the baby is born and then it'll be back to business as usual.  

juliehollz13

SchruteBucks said:

I also have two jobs I run an in-home daycare out of my house and do data entry in the evenings and weekends from home.  I'll close my daycare for about 2 or 3 weeks after the baby is born and then it'll be back to business as usual.  

@SchruteBucks I DO THE SAME THING IN THE EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS!!! OMG!!!!!!!!

SchruteBucks

@juliehollz13 .... small world! I'm also jealous that daycares in your area make so much.  Though, I'm sure you have the high cost of living to go along with it.  It's only about 1/3 of that here.

DiFazette

I work from home 3 days/week and SAHM with DS the other 2.  I work for my in laws and will be keeping baby #2 home with me for a while - probably 6 months or so.  Then they will go to the same daycare DS is in 3 days/wk.  

marg1046

I have a retail store - Swimming Pools and Hot tubs.  We start to slow down around October, so the timing of this is wonderful! It will give me time to be able to be home for a couple months without having to worry about my staff.  I will be back to work full time Spring 2017!

lrg14

I haven't completed decided yet.  I will either take 12 weeks and return to my current job or I will take a little more time and then look for a new job.  Unfortunately we don't live near family so we will need to do daycare or a nanny.  

@juliehollz13 I know a lot of the daycares in our area also often end up with waiting lists, so it is certainly something we hope to decide on sooner rather than later.

Right now I work standard work hours plus some evenings and weekends as an event manager.  So I may want to find a new job that has more regular hours.  Although my company may undergo some reorganization that would reduce my hours overall.

And then we need to talk about if we will we replace DH's car.  He has a two-door hatch-back Toyota Yaris that we both hate, so we have thought about turning it on and getting a small SUV.  In which case he would drive my car and I'd drive the new one.

JulieSmiles

I will most likely be taking from Thanksgiving through the new year off and then heading back to work. I'm a teacher so the timing is nice so i don't have to miss as much work, but I would like longer off. I may be taking off through January if we can swing it. Unfortunately, I will be working FOR-EV-ER!

FiancB

I'm a student currently, sooo it's going to be a little tricky. I graduate in May, probably take NCLEX in June and can probably expect to find a job by July. To tell or not to tell? I think I may just transition within my own company from being a direct service staff to being a nurse, and then wait to go gung ho on the real job search until after baby is here. Or maybe I'll go back to school by then. idk. In any case DH and I are wanting to buy a house so I really want to be able to prove I'm working full time even if only for as long as it takes to get a loan. 

Gosh I sound really irresponsible. I have my shit together, I swear. 

sammyl1221

I'm going to take off all the time I possibly can. My company covers 6 weeks but I live in NJ and they have some  of the best maternity leave laws in the country. I want to say it's 12 weeks guaranteed at 1/2 pay. My husband and I both have very flexible jobs so I think we will only need to use daycare/ family members 2-3 times a week. We are really banking on family because daycare is EXPENSIVE here. 

LucyGoose8710

I'm all over the place on this one.  I have my second interview for a new job on Wednesday - great timing, right? - and until I find out whether or not I get the position, I can't even start to plan.  I'll probably take whatever time off I am offered, since I won't yet be covered by FMLA. On the bright side, the new job would also involve an onsite daycare, so although I love my son's current daycare we would probably enroll both kids there.  

princesslockness

@sammyl1221 I'm in the same boat. I was just looking at my districts 16-17 calendar. I can take off from thanksgiving until New Years and only have to use about 2 weeks worth of sick days. I love my job and am the main income, so I will go back pretty quickly. Our current daycare is absolutely wonderful!! It's $20 a day, so right around 340-400 a month for school days. That includes diapers, and food once LO gets on solids.

MamaWino

I'm a real estate agent and cut way back on my client-load after my second daughter was born and will probably cut back even more after 3.0 arrives.  I stay home with my girls and work from home as needed.  My MIL watches them every Tuesday so I can go to my office/run errands/whatever, and I'm sure we'll stick to that routine.  

Financial goals before baby arrives?  Uh, we bought a house today.  Which means we desperately need to sell our current one.  The thought of two mortgages makes me want to throw up.  Probably wasn't the smartest decision with a baby on the way.  Lol

Jennys9

Currently a SAHM, and I love it.  I worked through my twenties and most of my thirties, so this is like early retirement for me.  I mean, if early retirement involved running around 24/7 taking care of an infant and nursing. 
Still, I'm really grateful to be able to provide the childcare myself. 
Financial goals  - I told DH to ask for a raise.  stat.

queenklau

That is a good question! How interesting that many of you own/run daycare centers in your home, its the best of both worlds (SAHM & working mom). My income is larger than DHs so we will both likely good back to work. The EDD timing works well for me because we have a week off in Dec and I have accumulated several vacation and sick days over the years, also we have at least 8 weeks maternity leave paid (maybe 12?), so I can imagine I can stay home with baby at least until mid March. Then maybe convince family members to tag-team visit us! hehe. 

Zygodactyl

I am a consultant with an office in the federal government. I just switched companies so that I could remain with the same clients I've worked with for the past 2 years on a solid contract, so I have 4 years guaranteed with the same awesome office and awesome people (that totally played a huge role in our decision to TTC). But what I really didn't consider is that my area doesn't do a lot of paid maternity leave and that this means I will only have been at my current company for 9 months instead of two years. DH works from home running his business, but we are unsure of his ability to adequately care for a newborn full-time, so I'm planning on taking as much leave as possible, working from home a few days a week (as many as they will allow), and finding a daycare close enough to my office that I can just go in to BF instead of pumping all the damn time. Also looking into daycare near our apartment, because the next best thing is DH being able to go in to bottle feed him/her a few times a day. 

PrettyPalomino

I'm Canadian, so my workplace has a full year maternity leave, plus I can take an additional 15 weeks of short term leave paid, so between the readjusted salary and government top up, I should have the same income. DH is a casual supply teacher so at the moment I'm the consistent source of income. Being off for the year shouldn't change much, as I'm a permanent employee and guaranteed to come back to the same or similar position

crystalmir91385

Thanks for posting this! I am struggling with this right now. I found out in January that my school isn't bringing me back next year. I'm torn between looking for a new job or subbing this next year.
I had lots of time off with DD and feel that I would want the same this time around. She was born the end of April, so I used my saved time off, then had the whole summer with her. Since LO will be a December baby, that's not an option.
DH wants me to at least work part time, though financially we could manage for a while on his salary. Thoughts? Do I try to find something before I'm showing?

thenali

I live in Canada and work for the provincial gov't. I'm super fortunate to get a year off and then DH can take some time off after as well when I go back to work. My dream is to work from home doing something I love... Daycare/puppy daycare? That's the dream.  

MrsBinPA

I plan to go back to work after baby is born.  I get 6 or 8wks paid leave depending on if it's a cs or not.  My work will also pay out unused vacation time at the end of the year, so I am hoarding my 25 days of vacation to extend my leave.   We have a boat which DH is trying to sell.  I am hoping that if it does sell this spring/summer it will help fund me taking off at least an extra few weeks/months.

Financial goals:  Our bonuses and tax returns should cover all our debit so it's just trying to be frugal in expenses to beef up our savings.

itsmehere1212

I do not plan to go back.  Right now my job, with prep and travel, consumes 10-12 hours a day.  I do not want to have that with a LO.  We have been saving for over a year putting a large amount of my salary away.  I will not work for the rest of the school year and maybe do two days a week subbing in the next school year.

TheLovingWife

I'm not sure yet, I teach preschool part time for fun after being a sahm for 6 years?! I really enjoy it and childcare is included as a benefit. I just don't know if I will want to go back once I have a tiny little one.

Sugargirl1019

I'd like to go back on a special 2 day full time position my hospital offers. That'd be awesome. But I recently started on a new unit with a new manager, and I'm dreading telling her I'm pregnant and I'm going to be taking off. She probably won't allow me to go 2-day full time. We'll see what happens. 

But in addition to PTO, I have short term disability to make a longer maternity leave. I need to find out what's standard!

goldensnitch731

My job gives up to 8 weeks unpaid leave to part time employees like myself. I then plan to go back to work and take LO with me as they have a babysitter service in the building. (I am a fitness trainer at a gym) I will start off with fewer hours than I have now and gradually get back up because I love my job.

slartybartfast

I went down to 30hr/wk with my first so I'll keep that schedule for one year after 2 is born. I'll also try my best to string together paid leave, FMLA, and telework options so that the first 6 months, I'm home. I went back after 10 weeks with this one (again, just part time) and it was unnecessarily complicated. He refused bottles til 8.5 months, my breastmilk doesn't store well because I make too much of an enzyme... and I didn't get much done at work anyways...

New management in a couple weeks though so we'll see... I make all the monies so I can't just quit or scale back anymore

R0824H

Another Canadian here, so I'll take my full year off and then go back to work when I have to. I also work 2 part time jobs

karmba

I have 16 weeks paid maternity leave, which is fantastic.  With my current position I travel 33% of the time, so I'll look to change roles either before or shortly after the baby is born.

CNCBump

I have 12 weeks paid at 80% covered by my short term disability policy at work so I will likely take off December through mid February. DH and I both work full time in an expensive daycare area so we're looking at 1200-1600 a month but we still both take home individually significantly more than that so we will both keep working. I work 7-4 Monday-Friday with 2 days a week from home.

a2003tiger

I am a full time small animal Veterinarian and I will continue after my 12 week leave. 

penelope4612

I plan to take 12 weeks off and then go back full time.  Depending upon how things go I may or may not end up working less (maybe 3-4 days per week) in the future but right now this is our first and we'll see how it goes.

cgss11

I'll take 12 weeks off, but it unfortunately will be unpaid. I didn't get signed up with short term disability soon enough (you have to pay into it for a year first). We will be okay though, we primarily live on DH's salary anyways. 

jptrumptone

Currently, my DH doesn't work (not for lack of trying...) so I'll definitely go back to work after my mat leave is up. My company has an amazing maternity leave policy (5 months!) and they'll let me take the last 2 weeks as half time for a month.  

bb3babe

Hi All! Just posted an intro, and I'm diving right in. Nice to meet all of you, and love reading about your work plans! My first two maternity-leaves were 6-weeks long each. It was doable, but rough to go back to a 40 hour work week. I recently resigned my salaried job to go into part time private practice. So, while I'm now paying for my own insurance, and the perks of a salary are gone - the flexibility of being my own boss is a major relief. With baby 3.0, I might go back to work with super reduced hours, and see a patient or two a day.      

gardengirl3

Last time I took 12 weeks off.  This time will probably only be 6-8 weeks since I am part time and won't qualify for Fmla.

beckandjusgriffman

I work five jobs. One desk job, one online job, one job as a front-of-house staff for a theatre (think ticket taker and drink maker), one job as a freelancer, and the last as backstage crew for Blue Man Group. Obviously the front of house position and the freelance position can be put on hold indefinitely. 
Both Blue Man Group and the desk job pay really well, and another person who runs the same backstage track as me is due in a month (and was the reason I was hired- she had a high-risk pregnancy and had to stop working backstage after first trimester) and will be back to work when I will have to stop after my second trimester (can't do my job with a big belly, our track involves crawling in small spaces on our hands and knees and carrying more than 30 pounds up and down stairs). But Blue Man is an AMAZING company to work for, and I'm going back to it asap. My desk job too is, well, a desk job and can be done until I go into labor lol. Plus I have my online business for maternity leave (Beachbody). So it wasn't even a question if I would go back to work after baby or not. The biggest issue will be figuring out husband and mine's schedule and convincing my retired mother to babysit (we haven't told our parents yet, so details pending).

leksiL

I will take some time off - hopefully 12 weeks but at least 8. We will be day caring and I think it's a good opportunity to socialize early. I work a standard flexible day job and I hope DH can cut back his hours to match. 

Mallorysusan

I'm planning to definitely take off 12 weeks. I have short term disability at 60% of my regular pay for 9 weeks and can use sick/vacation hours to cover the rest. Right now, I'm at 99 hours of sick time, which I'm hoarding! I don't know what will happen after baby is born. I will more than likely go back to work and try to do part time for a little bit, if my amazing boss is okay with it!

blessdtxas

With my first I only took 10 weeks off. This time, I plan to take the full 12 then go back to work full time at a non-profit. The transition is rough, and I often feel the mom guilt for working, but it is what is best for our family long term

DumbledoresArmy

I get 6 weeks paid and 6 weeks unpaid.  I'm an elementary school teacher.  We're gonna find a way to make sure I can take the full 12 weeks.  

sourlemon

I have to go back to work. I hope to work until my scheduled c section then take about 10 weeks off which is saved vacation and sick leave. Last pregnancy I ended up on bedrest for about a week so I only had 9 weeks after the kiddo was born before I had to return or go unpaid, which isn't an option for us. 

dmontgo

Fortunately I work from home, but will be taking a month off to adjust to a new routine! I'm really a fan of budgets, so we're going to continue saving as normal and cut back on eating out. By the time the baby gets here, there will be a nice cushion!