Women today are still grappling with the issue of either going back to work or staying at home to take care of their baby. There are pros and cons to consider what is best for you and your family. Below are some things to ponder to help you decide and to reach a mutual agreement with your partner.

Money

Top of the list is money. Is there a financial need for you to go back to work? If you are the top earner compared to your partner, then your partner may be the one to stay home with the baby or children.

Equality

Men and women are equal in many ways now and so it is with parenting. Giving up a good career does not have to be the mum. The decision must be in the best interest of the entire family.

photo credit: Cia de Foto

Personal happiness

Some women feel happy going to work as it makes them feel more confident and satisfied at home. They are happier going home after working at a satisfying job. Some reportedly have more patience upon reaching home and dealing with their parenting role.

Working outside part-time or be your own boss

Some women are addicted to the great feeling of working and accomplishing something. A possible solution is to do a part-time job that enables you to split the time between working and being a mom. The other option is to start up your own home-based business.

Precious milestones

Being at home means you get to see your baby accomplish important milestones. For some women, nothing is more important than their family and they are the happiest being a mom.

Personal time

It is important to have time alone or “me-time”. A working mom will find it difficult to have this as a large chunk of time is already spent at work and hence the balance is for the family. Being a stay-at-home mom makes it easier to slot in some personal me time.

Become a volunteer

A great idea to get the same sense of accomplishment as going out to work is to do some volunteer work. You can volunteer to help out in a school, church activities, etc.

What is your say on this matter?

photo credit: gcoldironjr2003

Feeling down about your work? Sometimes, life’s responsibilities can get to you and make you feel bad. In addition to already feeling stressed out with your job, you have to worry about your kids, money, health, etc.

Being happy at work means feeling good when you get home to be with your family and fulfilled your parenting role. At home, you can forget about work and look forward to waking up in the morning to face new challenges at work again. Below is a list of ideas to help you focus on having a fulfilling working experience at your job.

* Rewire your thoughts

Rewiring your thoughts to be positive will have a positive effect on your feelings and your actions. Stop complaining as doing so means your mind is focusing on the bad and negative things, which is what you want to avoid in the first place.

* Keep the problems small

Everyone encounters hiccups at work. Do not exaggerate minor, trivial inconveniences into a big thing. If you face a dilemma, see whether it can be turned into an opportunity.

* Change can be good

Sudden happenings or changes at work may disrupt your normal routine. View them as normal occurrences that may have a positive affect on your work. A new responsibility may be a good chance to apply unused skills or knowledge.

* Do not mix with a negative group

In every organization, there will be clusters of people who gripe about their work. Avoid this group and instead mix with happy and successful people who enjoy their work.

* Always focus on your goals

Focusing on your goals and what you plan to achieve will keep you motivated especially when you are facing a rough time or a difficult challenge.

* Do not worry about making mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes and it is part of being human. Learn from the mistakes and move on.

Last but not least, think about the benefits you receive by working like a nice paycheck, medical coverage, allowances, etc.

Wishing you a nice day at work!

photo credit: WTL photos

Do you agree with the title above? Your answer may depend on what is your definition of a good marriage and what is good parenting. The definition of a good marriage also varies with different couples. I am going to mention some requirements below and see whether you have other opinions or you want to add to it.

Having a good marriage means:

• You and your partner are emotionally and physically connected

• Both of you are honest with each other

• Both of you respect each other’s opinions and the differences in view points

• Both of you can talk openly about everything

• Both of you share common goals

• Both of you make time for each other, just the two of you

The above are some ideas that come immediately to mind when I think about what makes a good marriage. Personally, I believe it is important to have a strong marriage in order to be good in parenting.

My personal belief is that parenting is the responsibility of both partners. Each partner contributes positively in different ways to a child’s upbringing. Learn more about becoming good parents in an earlier posting entitled, “How to Become a Good Parent“ and “How to Improve Your Parenting Skills?“. I will be the first to admit that parenting a child or children is very complicated and requires a lot of patience. Hence, I am thankful to have a loving partner and we can work together as a team to fulfill all of our parenting responsibilities.

Therefore, it is important to solve any existing relationship problems quickly and strengthen the marriage foundation. Problems in a marriage may arise due to various reasons like cheating, misunderstandings, dishonesty, due to neglect, debt problems, etc.

Recently, I discovered a proven method or system created by a marriage expert that has a high success rate of close to 90% in saving marriages. The normal rate is about 20% only using the common techniques recommended by other marriage experts in the same field. If you think that you may benefit from this marriage or relationship saving system, you can get a free report here, “Save Your Marriage“.

Below are some unique features about this system:

• It can be applied even if only one partner is making the effort to save the marriage or relationship

• It can be applied no matter at what stage is the crisis, for example even after the divorce proceeding has started

• It can be applied for different relationship problems the couple is facing. For example, problems related to money, sex, dishonesty or cheating and many more.

Some couples stay together instead of separating for the sake of the children. However, this situation does not last long. In addition, it also affects the children in one-way or another. For example, the parents are supposed to be the role model that the children will learn from about relationship, marriage, respect, parenting, etc.

Therefore, having a solid and happy marriage means being able to carry out your parenting role more effectively and providing a positive growing up environment for the children.

What is your opinion about this subject matter? Please feel free to leave your comments below.

photo credit: laura padgett

WParent.com is a blog dedicated to the subject of parenting. It covers a whole range of topics from safety and health to parenting tips to make your parenting job easier and bearable. As parents, we all encounter similar universal problems as we do our best to fulfill our parenting role regardless of nationality, religion, culture, educational background, status, etc.

In order to give the readers more information and resources, I feel it is proper to list down some of the popular blogs on parenting available out there.

The ten sites listed below are sourced from http://topsites.blogflux.com/parent/

1. http://www.boobsinjuriesanddrpepper.blogspot.com
My first impression on this site is that it is a ‘funky’ site as hinted from the name itself. The language can be a bit strong but there is a great deal of information found here.
2. http://tipjunkie.blogspot.com
This is a great site if you are lacking in inspiration or ideas. There are so many creative inspirations posted here for example, ideas on home decorating, entertaining and organizing a birthday bash.
3. http://www.tertia.org/
This blogger lives in South Africa and her blog describes her personal experience regarding infertility among a lot of other things.
4. http://likemerchantships.blogspot.com
This site is visually pleasing with plenty of beautiful pictures posted by the owner making her site very enjoyable to read.
5. http://www.myfamilylovesit.com
If you want an inside peek into a family’s life, take a look at this site. It is all about family.
6. http://neenmachine.com
This is ‘Everything you want to know’ site. The topics are diverse covering working from home to home and garden. If you are busy, you may want to check out this one site.
7. http://groovy-mom.com
My first impression of this site is simple and elegant. The postings are easy to read under various categories like pets, knitting, crafts and television.
8. http://www.bargainshopperlady.com
This is the site to check out if you like shopping. The owner is a bargain shopping expert based in USA. You can expect to find lots of bargains here.
9. http://owlhaven.net
If you have a big, big family, then this is one site you don’t want to miss. Mary, the site owner has 10 kids where some are adopted from Korea and Ethiopia. Learn how she and her husband raise their beautiful family.
10. http://www.steptalk.org
This is a site for stepparents to congregate and exchange ideas. A very interesting site as there is a lot of contributions from other like-minded bloggers.

At the time of writing, these are the top blogging sites for parenting ranked according to the number of unique visits to each blog. These sites receive thousands of unique visitors per week attesting to their popularity.

The next five parenting blog sites below are the Blogger’s Choice Awards winners for 2008 in the category of Best Parenting Blog.

1. http://www.karencheng.com.au
The owner Karen Cheng, calls her site ‘Snippets of Life’ focusing on women’s lifestyle, fashion, parenting, etc. You can see her impressive personal touch in this blog.
2. http://www.outnumberedonline.com
This is one great parenting blog written by a man named Jason Mayo. It is interesting to read about parenting and other topics from a man’s point of view.
3. http://www.onteenstoday.com
As the name suggests, this site is about teens and youths. What is interesting about it is the authors are all teenagers (age 13 -17) giving insights from the kid’s perspective.
4. http://oureverydaythings.com
The site owner Leonny, lives in Singapore with her family. Her site contains beautiful pictures on her family mostly taken by herself. She writes a lot of great inspirational posts which can be food for thought for the rest of us.
5. http://edunloaded.blogspot.com
This blog belongs to a dad of 3 kids also living in Singapore. It is again refreshing to read about parenting from a ‘dad’ point of view. He shares a lot of things about his family life.

I don’t have a personal favorite as all of them are unique and interesting in their own way. The wealth of information and the sharing of personal stories are great to read. I normally find myself glued to the computer for hours as I am unable to stop reading them.

Oftentimes as parents, we do feel like our problems are special, unique and difficult to handle. This makes our parenting job looks so tough and feels like a heavy burden. Therefore, it is good to read about how other parents manage their role and solve their problems and live to see another day. Personally, it makes my parenting job easier to cope with. I also get the chance to say “Been there, done that”, to new younger parents and feel good about it.