New Moms--What You Can Do Instead of Staying Home Full Time

It can look pretty tempting to be a full time stay-at-home-mom. The difficulties of juggling a job and a family, running a household, and other responsibilities can make the life of a stay-at-home parent look like an incredible relief. All that time to spend with your child and plenty of time and space to get everything done sure can look like a picnic compared to juggling it all. But, before you give up your earning power and financial independence, here are some things to consider instead of staying home full time:

Start by taking a good look at your current job and your job skills and marketability. There may be more flexibility in your current job than you realize. And, if there's not, your job skills may be as such that you might be more valuable to another employer and have more flexibility in your work. Look over your schedule and see if there is room for flexibility, telecommuting or working more independently at different hours. You may be able to flex your work schedule to be more available as a parent and still be able to continue working. If your job skills are lacking, how can make yourself more marketable and more valuable so as to have more pull to "write your own schedule" in the work world? There may be specific things you can do to give yourself more leverage in negotiating a more family-friendly schedule.

Look closely and realistically at your job and your work--what is an absolute must? What are the elements that cannot be changed or are not flexible in any way? And, what are the pieces that you could do in some other way. The more research, homework and time you spend preparing, the more clout and confidence you'll have when you go in to negotiate job changes with your boss or supervisor.