The Benefits of Being A Stay At Home Mom
I’m just going to be totally honest and upfront about this. Being a full time stay at home mom is totally worth it. The benefits far outweigh the cons. Now, I’m not saying it is easy. Taking up the responsibility of caring for your children full time from home is a job and it is tough. If you haven’t already, I suggest you read here where I list out and explain my Top Ten Cons of Being A Stay at Home Mom first.
But if you are reading this then you most likely are a working woman who is interested in learning more about what it is like being a homemaker out of pure curiosity or because you and your spouse are considering you becoming one.
Whatever the reason is, I’m happy that you are here wanting more information about the good, the bad, the ugly and the priceless on what it is like being a stay at home mom. You may be surprised that it is more than what meets the eye.
Pros of Being A Stay at Home Mom
1. You Will Never Miss A Moment or A Milestone
This pro was a big one for me as a driving factor to become a stay at home mom. Well, this one and #2 on this list. When I first had my daughter, I immediately began thinking to myself- okay, I cannot allow myself to miss her first steps. My mind began to imagine all of the “firsts” that she would be experiencing in her first year of life and immediately I began to worry. I began to worry because if I returned to the work force there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to witness the first time “Big Girl” said her first word or successfully used the potty. I didn’t want to be so tired and busy from a long week at work and be confined to only a weekend to spend uninterrupted time with my baby. I didn’t want to miss the little things. I didn’t want rush to wake up in the morning and leave my infant with a care giver while I sat at work battling feeling as if I abandoned my child somehow.
I say this with no intention to make it seem as if mothers who return to working outside of the home soon after having a baby are any less than the mothers who decide to stay home full time. All moms love their children. All moms do what they can. But in this case, being a stay at home mom means you can soak up every waking (and sleeping) second with your little ones. For some women it can drive them crazy. For others, it’s something they wouldn’t want to pass up. For me, I didn’t want to miss a moment of my children’s early years because I know I’d never have these moments back.
2. Provide the Best Care to Your Child
My #2 pro on this list was my core driving force for me to choose to stay at home with my kids fulltime. There is no doubt about it-a mother is the best person to care for her child and provide everything that a child needs. The love, the attention, feeding, teaching-it was meant to primarily come from mom.
Again, this is another one of those things where there is a however attached to it. Although I believe that mother knows best (instinctively), that is not always the case. Some women are not fit to care for a child fulltime. Whether it is because of a mental or physical disorder that hinders the mother from caring for the child or if it places the child in danger. I always commend a woman who knows her limitations. Sometimes we can get tied up in being this person that everyone expects us to be and that can drive us crazy when we cannot mentally handle it. Mental strain causes physical strain and can really build up to be a larger problem in the future if it’s not taken care of right away. This is something we will talk about another time.
I do want to also add that a father can care for his child just as well as a mother. I’ve seen this time and time again. But as far as that maternal instinct…there is nothing like it. It’s innate.
If you have a child that suffers from a disability, allergy or disorder you will also be the best person to watch over your child and minimize any mistakes an outside caregiver would make.
I’d also want to add that being a stay at home mom means that you can protect your child from harm or abuse that another caregiver may inflict on your children. I want to go on about this and the statistics that data shows in regards to this, but I will save that for a later post.
3. No Childcare Expense
Let’s face it, childcare is EXPENSIVE. For some households, the cost of childcare is a small price to pay in comparison to the income that is brought home from both parents. In simpler terms- some people can afford it. Yet, for most households in America the cost of childcare is just too much to bear financially. If you have more than one child that will be in daycare or require a nanny, it will cost even more.
No one wants to skimp on the childcare expense if they want to leave their child at a reputable facility that they can trust. Saving on the childcare expense is one of the leading reasons why families choose to have a parent transition from working outside of the home to being at home with the child fulltime.
4. No Office Politics, Drama, and Workplace Stress
*Sigh*
This one is my favorite. No more having my life revolve around my boss’s schedule. No more having to wake up early, scarfing down breakfast and rushing through traffic to make it to work on time. No more drama or competition in the office. You won’t have to worry about what your job will say if you have to take baby to a doctor’s appointment or if you have to leave early because your child had an emergency at daycare or at school. No more wasting money on work clothes. You won’t have to get dolled up every day or spend time packing your lunch or spend money to buying lunch out.
I hear about drama in the workplace all of the time when I speak to family and friends and boy, I do not miss that one bit.
5. More Time to Teach Your Values, Culture & Beliefs
If your household has a spiritual belief or a certain culture that you want to instill in your children, being a stay at home mom allows you to do that full on from your child’s early years. This is especially important if you want to make sure your children have this foundation before they join the rest of the world in daycare or school.
You can control the environment they are in and what they are exposed to and when. If you are a Christian family, you are able to instill church services, bible study lessons and prayers in your day to day lifestyle. I talk more about this point in my video here.
Also, you have more control over your child’s diet and the food that they eat on a regular basis. So, if you want your children to eat whole foods that are made from scratch, you have control over that. Yes, you can pack these foods for your children when they go to school or when you bring them to daycare but being a stay at home mom makes it easier because you are not on any time constraint. You will have time and energy to focus on making these nutritious meals and encouraging your children to eat them. You can even get your children involved in growing the fruits and veggies and preparing the meals.
6. Experience Being A Stay at Home Mom
Being a stay at home mom might sound like a dream to most women. The picture that pops into your head of what a fulltime homemaker may seem like the ultimate lifestyle. But I will be the first to let anyone know that although it is a totally beautiful experience, it might not be for everyone. So, I say that a pro to being a stay at home mom is that you get to experience being one. You get to live that dream of yours of being at home with the children for as long as you and your spouse agree on. If you find out that it’s not for you then you can return back to work knowing what it is like. Or if you come up with a goal on how long you want to stay at home with the kids then you can be a homemaker until you reach that goal and then return back to work. I know some moms who want to stay at home until their child is 6 months, 1 years old or until their child can talk. Once they reach that goal age for their child, these women return back to the workforce with no problems at all.
Either way, you can say, “I was a stay at home mom”, and not have any regrets on never being able to experience what it feels like to be one.
7. Uninterrupted Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is a beautiful experience between mother and baby. It is also very fragile when it comes to maintaining milk supply as the baby grows. Milk supply can fluctuate because of many different factors and pumping and storing milk takes effort and patience. If you are a stay at home mom, you get to focus on breastfeeding and pumping and freezing milk. You can still do the same if you are working outside of the home, but it’s not as easy. It can become difficult to manage and take breaks to pump while at work. Having to cut down on breastfeeding baby can be emotionally taxing at first until you and baby transition to a breastfeeding routine that works for you both.
To add to that, when you are separated from your baby and you pump and freeze breastmilk more than the baby is physically on your breast latched and feeding, your milk supply may decrease. This is because your body is built to know when baby is latched on to you and it gauges how much milk to produce from that. The enzymes in the saliva of the baby’s mouth send signals through the pores into the ducts of your nipple that communicate with your body to maintain a healthy milk supply. Pumping from a breast milk machine just does not measure up to baby’s suckling.
8. No Separation Anxiety from Returning to Work Too Soon
In a clinical study done between December 2016 and January 2017 a group of women were surveyed who were employed at a large, public university in the Midwest who had given birth in the past five years. The survey was to examine overall health in the first month of work reentry. They examined whether physical or psychological health problems during pregnancy, childbirth complications, length of maternity leave, and depression and anxiety at work reentry were related to overall health.
The survey found that women who experienced medical complications during pregnancy, return to the workplace too soon after birth, and experience mental health symptoms were vulnerable physically as they returned to work.
Nature tells us that it is unnatural for mother and baby to be separated from one another so soon after the child is born. The anxiety, depression, and guilt that we feel when we return to work too soon are signals our body sends to us because our newborn is vulnerable and needs its mother more than anything and anyone in the world.
There will be a time when you can return to the workforce, mentally and physically ready. You will feel it and you will know it is time. And perhaps your child will too. This will be when your child is ready to socialize with other children or people and explore new environments and equally enough, so will you.
9. Time to Reassess your Life
Being a stay at home mom means you get to take a step back from the working world and reassess what you want in life. If you are a student in school, you get time to reconsider if the degree you are going for is truly what you want. Maybe the job you had before is not the career that you want to work for the rest of your life. Perhaps there are things about yourself that you want to develop or habits you want to change. This is a time that you can step back and work on you. Heal yourself mentally, spiritually, and physically. This is the time you can seek The Lord and grow close to Him and have Him reveal to you what He wants for you to do with the rest of your life.
This leads me to my next pro, which is that you will have more…
10. Time to Work on A Hobby, Passion, or Build A Side Hustle
To add to the last pro, being a stay at home mom means you have more time to work on a hobby, develop a passion, or build a side hustle. These are things that working full time outside of the house can hinder you from because your free time is very limited.
Imagine coming home from working 8 hours of the day and then having to tend to your child, breeze through dinner time, catch up with your significant other, and get baby ready for bed. If you were trying to work on a side hustle or hobby after all of that was said and done, you’d be tired, out of focus and probably ready to go to bed because you have to work the next day. Your weekends would be ideal for these activities but then you’d find yourself trying to spend as much time with your family on the weekends because those are your only full days off during the week.
Being a stay at home mom means you have freedom in your time. Yes, you have to work around your child’s schedule but it’s a good start to something that could lead to a larger and greater benefit for you and your family. Your hobby may be a healthy outlet for you that can turn into a side hustle that can bring in an extra source of income and perhaps one day replacing the job you once had before if you wanted it to. You never know, the sky is the limit.
Bonus Pros of Being A Stay At Home Mom
11. You Get to Home School
This one is for those mothers who want to homeschool their children. Or for those women who never thought they would consider it but find that they might go with the option of educating their children from home for many different reasons. Especially with the current coronavirus pandemic, thousands of families are opting to have their children continue their education virtually from the comfort of their own home.
There are many forms of homeschool. There are live virtual classes, homeschool co-ops, flexible non-live virtual classes, or homeschool curriculums you can purchase that you teach your children.
Prior to the pandemic, there was the concern of the rate of school shootings.
Also, if your child has a condition, allergy or disorder that you feel may make it difficult for your child to thrive at a public school system, this is an option for you.
12. Flexible Everyday Schedule
This bonus pro has a lot to do with pro #10 in this list. A flexible every day schedule is AMAZING! I absolutely love it. You are in charge of your everyday routine. You can wake up when you want and go to bed when you please. Of course, it is best to have your children on a daily schedule but in the beginning months you really need that flexibility because babies don’t always sleep through the night and they tend to sleep tons during the day.
Being a stay at home mom means you can schedule a family trip anytime of the week or month without having to worry about high priced hotels and flights due to holidays. Or having to request time off from work to take the kids to the beach. You won’t have to worry about the kids missing days at school if you wanted to travel or take a trip as a family.
You can pack up the kid’s in the car mid-day and enjoy the mall without all of the crowds. You can take them to the park and have the entire playground to yourself. On a rainy day, you can cuddle up and watch movies all day with no repercussions. If your child is sick you can give them your full attention with no interruptions or time limitations.
So Much More To Being A Stay At Home Mom Than Meets The Eye
I hope that this list and explanations of the top 10 pros of being a stay at home helps you in some way. This is by no means an exhaustive list, there are so many more pros to being a stay at home mom out there, so if you have anything you want to add from your experience I encourage you to leave it in the comment section below for other moms to know.
If you haven’t already, read my top 10 cons of being a stay at home mom here.
I provide my top 5 of the pros and cons from this list in a video here. Check it out, like, and subscribe to my channel for more videos on being a stay at home mother and wife.
I wish you all of the best in your stay at home mommy journey.