WHAT MAKES WOMEN LEAVE THE JOB TO BE FULL-TIME MOTHERS

Quitting a job is not an easy decision, even more, when we are raised to pursue a career. We are stuck with the thought that if other women can manage their careers and kids, why can’t we. We are in a constant dilemma of whether to continue to pursue our career and job or to face the challenges of motherhood, its hardships and joys. We, the women/mothers, are never bestowed upon with the easiest choices to make. I guess that is the reason only we are blessed to be the creators of life on earth. In a common scenario, we work our way up into a job, we have a child and then we turn into a baby-obsessed mother who wants to stay at home. Today’s women have their own targets in life, unlike women of the older generations. But at the same time, personal life has to be taken care of. Thus, after a successful start of our career, we think of getting married and having a family. Each phase of our life has its own defined limits, both downsides and upsides.

To second this thought, I would share my own experience. Being raised by a single parent ( my mother ), I always wanted to achieve great heights in my career, along with the thought that a baby needs a mother the most at least during the first 2 crucial years of his/her life. After working for a span of continuous 7 years, I finally quit my job. I had decided after my marriage that I would quit my job during the last trimester of my pregnancy. But to my surprise, I had to quit my job soon after I conceived ( because of some complications in my pregnancy ). It was hard in the beginning to stay at home for the whole day, but then ‘the motherly instincts and feelings’ made me strong and believe that it was the best decision for my baby. Today when I look at my son, I do not regret my decision of leaving a job, as I am able to witness each and every action, milestone and hardships of my growing son. Also, I wanted to make every phase of my life remarkable, hence I quit a job to look after my child. I truly believe that in this competitive world, a strong foundation is required for a child to survive. It can be best done if a child is well nurtured right from the day one. I wanted my baby to understand the value of family and culture, so it was necessary for me to leave the job and take care of him. It was an unthinkable situation for me if I had continued with the job. I have now started taking up freelance work of content writing, manage my son and give him all the time he needs. Also, it is an added benefit that I get to work in my pajamas and I am no more part of office politics. I am happy with this phase of my life. I don’t find it necessary to take up a job when I can work from home.

Having said that, I genuinely appreciate the hard work and effort the working mothers put in when it comes to their job and kids. It is their personal choice and career orientation that drive their passion to continue with their jobs even after having a baby. I am sure they go through a lot of sacrifice by leaving their kids at home. The reasons must be unavoidable, otherwise no mother would like to leave her baby at home with a nanny or so. It is not right to judge their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction if they leave their kids at home to pursue their dream job. It is something very subjective and varies from person to person. For some it may be a financial reason, it may be their career orientation for others and for the rest it may be their outlook on life and family. Needless to say, personal priorities are higher when it comes to decision making.

A working woman has a commitment to her work and a mother has a commitment to her child than to her job. Globally, women are expected to be the primary caregiver, thus the majority of them leave work and become stay-at-home moms. As long as we can sustain ourselves and our baby, there is nothing wrong with quitting our job.

I left my job and I do believe many of you left your jobs too. We go through this dilemma of what to do with our lives after we have our baby. We reach crossroads and need to decide the role we would play as a mother of our baby – would we want to be a working mom or would we stay at home. Both these paths are scary, ultimately we have to decide, taking into consideration all the pros and cons of the same. We have to think about the consequences and the benefits of our decision before the baby arrives. The ‘what’s’ and ‘if’s’ of a stay-at-home mom are hard to face, as leaving a job to stay at home is a big decision. Make your decision wisely as I did, and there is not a single day that I ever regret the wonderful decision I made to stay at home. Since I strongly believed that my baby is only a baby once, I did not want to miss out on the early years of my baby’s life, as I would never be able to get his early years and his ‘first-ever’ everything back ever.