ABOUT

Where are you from?
I'm originally from Toronto Ontario Canada but I spent a good 10 years in Bergen County New Jersey so I do have dual citizenship. I use both to my advantage depending on my situation. Example: when I debate the news or American law with my husband I may responded with “I’m an American, I would know!” when someone talks smack about the American education system “hmm, well I’m Canadian so….”

What made you decide to start this blog?
I love to write and I use my blog as a way to develop my skills while I share my story with others, no matter if it’s one person reading it or 1 million (yeah right lol). I feel like there are so many blogs written by mothers who stay at home that working mothers don't have their story told quite as much.

How did you make the decision to be a working out of the house mom?
For me this wasn’t a tough decision.  I temporarily stayed at home with the boy and while I completely understand why some parents chose to stay at home, I personally didn’t feel as if I was living up to my potential. I craved more for myself. Besides, the life style that my husband Aaron and I wanted would require a second income :)  

How do you feel about daycare raising your children?
While daycare/school provides a great deals of support to Aaron and I, I do not feel as if they are raising my children. We teach them a great deal more about life and responsibility and accountability that they could ever learn from daycare because we are their examples. No matter how much time they are away from us they still look to us to guide them. If doing arts and crafts and teach them their ABC's is considered parenting, then we are highly underestimating the jobs that we as parents do.

How do you manage to get everything done during the work week?
I get everything done with the love and support and constant help from my husband. We are truly a team, sometimes a tag team and we work together to run this household. There are a lot of tip and tricks that we use in order to ensure things run soothely. For instance we cook in batches, we learned to love our crockpot and we get a lot of things done while the boys are asleep or we put it off until the weekend.

What is the best part about work?
There are so many great reasons for someone like me to work. You can read about some of the reasons here but I think the best reason is the wonderful feeling I get from being financially independent. I enjoy going out and making my own money and being able to financially contribute to my family. 

What is the worst part about working?
You can read about my reasons here. The worst part of me working is not being about to see my boys all day. I love the weekends where we just chill and watch TV and my boys find me on the couch and they fight over who gets to cuddle with me. I will say something like “we can all cuddle at the same time,” and the reluctantly share me but not without the “I want that side! You got that side last time!” even my kids know I have a better side lol.

What are your thoughts on women who stay at home moms?
I think that any choice a family makes together is the best choice for that family.  I often hear people trying to determine which is more difficult, working a full time paid job out of the home, or working a full time job within the home. It’s really not fair to compare the two as they both extremely valuable. If we focus less on which titel is better/harder/more valuable and focused more on supporting each other, we would be a lot better off.

What is it like being a young wife and mother?
Aaron and I started our family rather soon in life. I was 22 and he was 23 when we got married and started a family and though our situation in the beginning was nothing short of difficult I would not change a thing. I truly enjoy being a younger mother and look forward to Aaron and I being 35 & 36 when the boys are 13 & 10 and being able to take them on cool vacations that I wouldn’t dare to take them to now being that they are so young. On the down side it’s annoying being the only one of my friends that have children and even if they are having kids, their kids will not be the same age as mine.

Anymore kids on the horizon?
You can read about my indecision here. As of right now, there are no plan to increase our family size but this “plan” changes monthly. Seriously! When it comes down to it, I cannot see us seamlessly having number 3. There is way too much to consider. Yes Aaron and I will get 1 year maternity/paternity leave (either we split the year or one of us takes the whole year by ourselves) but what about the promotional opportunities that may take place while I am away? With taking a 45% pay cut how will our family manage? We will need a new car no doubt, can we afford that? Do I want to have to give up my body again? The questions go on and on. So unless we have a surprise baby, we are about 87% sure that it's not happening.

And before anyone asks, no I do not miss not having a girl, my boys fill my heart enough thank you!
  


2 comments:

  1. So happy to have found your blog and to be swapping with you! I nominated you for the Sunshine Award btw!!
    http://phuketfamily.blogspot.com/2013/11/sunshine-award.html

    ReplyDelete