Question
I have a 9 year old in school and a 2 year old foster child that we are adopting who was placed with us in February. When she was placed with us I cut back my workload to try and spend as much time as possible with her. When I did work, I had my sister or mom watch her at my house. She has adjusted very well. Therefore, I was with her for 6 months. I now need to work part time at one job (long story, but it is a situation where I don't have a choice), so I found a home-based day care that she has been going to for 2 weeks and she is finally not crying in the morning when I leave. If I maintain just my current job, I could take her just 3 days a week to daycare and stay home with her for two days and barely make any money. My question is, I have an opportunity to work at another part time job that would provide much more income, but that would mean she is at daycare 5 days a week all day (8-4). The extra money from the second job would definitely be helpful, but we would survive without it. It would be money for vacations, date nights with husband, and other extras like doctor bills and expenses that come up. I stayed at home with my first until she went to school and I feel guilty about the idea of not staying at home with my second, especially since she moved in with us when she was 18 mo old. I am torn because I have read the benefits of staying at home with their own mother, but her childcare provider is gifted with children and there are other children to play with there (not at my house since her sister is at school). Unfortunately I do not have any mentors in my life to speak words of wisdom. Am I just being greedy and need to take advantage of this time with my daughter? Or do I go ahead and work more to help provide for my family? Thank you for any advise!
