GainesvilleMoms.com

I come from a family culture of not whining when things are rough all around, but this little item caught my eye today:

Working women spend more time at work than ever, they talk more to their coworkers than their family members and they have no free time. Yet a raise is the most desired change in their work lives, according to the sixth Working America Ask a Working Woman survey, overtaking health care, which was the top issue in the 2006 survey.

"Working women want to spend more time with their families, but they can't afford to," says Karen Nussbaum, Executive Director of Working America.

Here's the link: Working Women Need a Raise and a Break

A sad sign of the times.

So true for me. I love love to stay home with my daughter but with the rising prices we need the money, so I work. But even working to help cover bills, food and gas, I still have to pay childcare.
Getting a raise is impossible at least here at UF with the hiring freeze and the budget cuts.

So for spending time during the week with my daughter, she goes to bed at 9pm so me and my husband can spend time with her. Even though most of the time is feeding her and giving her a bath and then putting her to bed. At least there is a little room for play time.

That is so, so, so true. I hate nights when I work late, because it only gives me 30 minutes to an hour to spend with my boys before bedtime. And raises right now in any industry are hard to come by.

I beat myself up all the time over my long hours at work.

But I notice that when I am home and paying total attention to my family, my family cheers me on in little ways like complimenting me on dinner or doing the dishes before I have to.

These are scary economic times for many of us and we have to do what we have to do. That includes making every moment count when we're at home.

We try to make the moments count at home, even if they are small ones like a bedtime snack together. At the end, all of those little moments add up and really mean so much. I hope my kids will remember these days fondly, because of moments like those.

The little moments are my favorite!

My husband and I both work 40hr plus weeks. We have a lot of flexibility and can do a lot of work after bedtime. We savor the special moments. Last night we had a tball game, went to Moes for Moo Moos and came home and chased fire flys in the dusk. It was so much fun..chasing the fire flies (tball and Moes had its moments). My 4 yr old woke up talking about it and wants to do it again tonight "w/ a net and a jar this time"

LWhitehurst,
I love the image of you and your little ones chasing fireflies. It cost nothing but will be a memory your child will treasure.

By the way, are you from Lake City? I ask because there's another mom who just signed up who is new to that area and wants to connect with other moms.

Her sign-on is TWKMOMM. I'll give her a heads up.

Yes it was fun!!! We are off to get nets/jars tonight after work . I am located in NW Gainesville.

Gotcha...have fun with the firefly expedition.

I'm a 40+ hour/week working mom, too, and between that and household/family chores that take up time, special moments with the kids are too, too few. Special, yes, but way too few. I try to spend a few minutes in the morning cuddling each one on my lap before leaving for work, and then some time in the evenings that's not feeding and bathing. My three-year-old, every night, before bed, just us, we have a nighttime snack together, which he calls our picnic. Usually just a piece of fruit or some crackers and cheese, but every night, after his baby brothers are in bed, he asks, "Mommy, what you got for our picnic tonight?" And we'll munch out while we watch Scooby-Doo or Diego or Thomas the Tank. Just us. When it's been a busy, hectic day and he falls asleep before our picnic, I really miss it! And if he wakes up in the middle of the night and realizes he missed it, watch out! Grumpy and grouchy the next day...but I'm glad it means that much to him!

TripleAmom,
What a lovely image of you and your son and your ritual picnics.

My daughter and I had this ritual through most of her elementary years: every morning after we had both tumbled out of bed to get ready for school and work, I would sit on the edge of the tub with her in my lap and we would just hold each other.

Sometimes she would tell me her dreams (like me, she has amazingly vivid dreams), but usually there was no conversation. Just a soft, lingering embrace.

She's 14 now, but every now and then, when I'm in the kitchen in the morning, she'll come up behind me and just drape her arms over me (sadly, she is now slightly taller than me). And we'll just stand there.

I love it.

Nice meeting you, TripleA. You're a cool mom.

Newsmom, I second that!...Tripal A mom is such a cool Mom! I loved hearing about your children. Your eyes light up when you talk about them. What lucky boys to have such a wonderful mommy and a lucky mommy to have such beautiful boys!

I completely agree with this. Before I got married and pregnant my career was my LIFE. The along came a hubby and a baby, and I had to juggle. I work 24 hours on, 48 hours off, so I am kind of in a different situation then many moms. I had thought about going to work somewhere with 12 hour shifts, but when I started to look at the hours I think I get more quality time with my daughter this way. But when we looked into daycare, the numbers basicaly spelled my hubby would be working to pay for daycare. So we decided what would be best for the family was for me to continue to teach part time at SFCC ($25 an hour is 4 x more then he would make hourly!) and he would stay home with the baby.

So my hubby stayed home and I worked, and once she turned one he got a part time job. But even though he stayed home, Im still the Mom and this is the part that is hard for peope to understand. Even at work I am still thinking of her, and for the first 6 months of her life I was pumping because I was detemined to breastfeed.

As my daughter gets older I try to find things we can do together when I am home with her, so she never feels like she is missing out because I am gone.

And honestly, the thing that makes it worth being away, is her greeting me at the door in the morning with a big smile and a "Mama!" and trying everything she can to get into my arms.

Most of you are probably young mothers (or YOUNGER mothers), but I was very surprised (when I first started staying home full-time in mid 2000) just how much money we had been WASTING when I worked. We were worried we couldn't make it with me at home, but were truly surprised how much one can save/budget when the little things are cut out. For example, we stopped eating out for lunch and cut way back on eating out any other time. We switched to generic brands of food and STUCK to a shopping list that included just what we really needed. We combined our trips (this was before gas went way up in price) and we cut out vacations. The biggie is we stopped using credit; if we didn't have the cash for it, we didn't buy it! The statistics show that people spend 12-18% more when they pull out a credit card rather than cash!

I am still driving our 1999 van because it is paid for, much like our 1995 Saturn. We bought a smaller house that had a $800 house pmt even though we could (technically) afford a much larger house. We are STILL in that 1700 square foot home today even though my husband's salary has doubled.

I have many middle class friends who think they cannot stay home, but who WANT to stay home (some part-time, but some full-time). I watch as they spend money on "stuff"...cars, vacations, name brand clothing, eating out and rack up credit card debt instead of using the cash they do have. They complain about not being home more w/ their kids, but they can't seem to see that if they managed their money (etc) better, they COULD stay home w/ their kids. Just the money they would save on daycare/after school care is a lot!

Some people MUST work; I am not foolish enough to think otherwise. Some people LOVE to work. But for those who WANT to stay home with their growing children who will only be young once, please don't assume there's no way for you to stay home (at least part-time). I would hate for ANY mother to miss out on something so important as being w/ her own children simply because she erroroneous believes she can't afford to not work full-time.

I used to frown upon my own mother who stayed home (by choice) when we 2 girls were young (thru middle school). I thought she wasn't independent enough or bright enough and I really felt she didn't receive enough respect (how ironic). It wasn't until I had my first child in 1994 that I realized what a GIFT my mother gave her daughters. She gave of herself! And as an 83-yr-old woman now, I see a bright, independent woman who truly loves her daughters and who taught them a very important lesson on knowing what is TRULY important in life...our growing children.

I would not trade these last 8 years w/ my son for ANY amount of money. Thousands of people nationwide can replace me as a classroom teacher, but NOBODY can replace me as my son's mom or replace the time we have together

Good luck to each one of you. Motherhood is a WONDERFUL gift from God! I feel SO blessed to have been given two healthy children.