We took a 50% pay cut so we didn’t have to spend money on childcare

He agreed and had no intention of asking me to interrupt my career. But after our baby was born, our plan changed. After childcare pricing Options, running about $3,500 a month for a nanny or local care, we realized these costs were drastically higher than we expected. Plus, I felt so attached to my baby and couldn’t relax the idea of ​​letting someone else be with her all day.

I decided to do something unexpected. I took a 50% pay cut and started working half as much as I usually do, so we she didn’t have to go outside of childcare. I’ve been doing this for the past 16 months.

I switch back and forth between being a mom and running my business

I broke my day into self-centered chunks the child’s sleeping schedule. When she wakes up around 5:30, my husband and I spend time with her until about 8 in the morning when I sit down to work. He watches her until she goes down for her first nap at 9 a.m., and then takes on his full-time job for the day.

He usually wakes up about an hour and a half later, and I’ll shut down my computer for mommy duty until early afternoon when he takes his second nap. I’m going to do some more work until she wakes up. I finish my work for the day when she sleeps at night which is around 7pm

While a the sleep schedule of the small child can be unpredictable, on a good day I’m able to work for around four and a half hours. I often have to take a break to take care of the housework before she wakes up, and I often try to do a workout before I go to bed.

Before I had a baby, I was working eight or nine hours a day. Now I work half as much as before. Because most of my work is service-based and requires me to be present, either working with clients or creating content, I’m not able to do that much. My income was cut in half because my output has.

I am grateful to be able to spend time with my child

A major reason I felt comfortable taking on weekly childcare responsibilities instead of working full-time was because I wanted to spend time with my child. I you don’t plan to have another childso I see this experience as my only chance to be fully present with my child before she starts school programs at age 3.

I’m grateful that I’ve built a career where I can decide how many hours a week I want to work and I can be more flexible with my income because my partner earns a full-time salary that helps pay the bills I have . unable to pay.

I don’t have a break and it’s hard

While I love spending time with my baby, the pressure to fit in work whenever I can makes me feel very anxious and stressed during the day. When I’m with her, I try not to be on my phone or computer. But my mind is always wondering what emails they got or how I’ll be able to do what’s on my to-do list when she’s asleep.

Trying to work at the level I am while being there for my child has not been good for my mental health. I often find that by the end of the day, I’m exhausted and feeling depressed that part of the career I’ve worked so hard to build is fading away because I don’t have as much time to invest in it. During the day, I feel restless trying to be two different people: a mother and entrepreneurand remembering which hat to put on hour by hour.

I also fear that when she goes to school in a year and a half and I can work more again, I will be behind in my career. I worry that I will never recover from missed opportunities.

I’m not sure we’re saving as much money as we thought we would

It’s a plus that we save over $3,000 a month by not having any formal childcare, but there’s also an opportunity cost to consider. If I could work even just 40 hours a week, I could do more than that.

So not only would my salary cover childcare costs, but I’d also have enough to pay bills and put extra money into savings. But since I can only work half as much and bring in 50% of the income I used to, we can only save on childcare costs without any of those extra financial bonuses.

If we were doing this just for financial reasons, it might not be the best idea for our family. But for now, at least, I often have to remind myself that this is a sacrifice I choose to make. I want to spend these first years with my daughter and I don’t think I will regret it later.