Having Two Children - Daycare Guilt
I'm a full time working mom right now... I will be off work for close to 1 year for the birth of coming baby and I was thinking of how things will be. Nora goes to daycare right now that she attends full time. It's very hard to get a spot in a place like that... The lists are a few years long.
Anyway, I checked and it seems that generally, moms keep their older child at the daycare even after the birth of a new baby. So following that, it would mean one year of one-on-one time with the baby (weekdays). I feel a bit guilty about liking the idea of keeping Nora at the babysitters and having that time alone with the baby. If I do that, I do plan on making it a looser schedule than she has now, like from 9-4 instead of 8-5:30 like it is now and of course keeping her home more often than she's able to stay now...
I feel guilty because technically, I'd be going back to work at practically the same time as Nora starts to go to KG so I wouldn't NEED to reserve her spot at daycare... I feel guilty about 1) not being the best stay-at-home-mom during that year since I'd be getting one child babysat full time and 2) taking a spot that another child could occupy for that year.
I checked and it seems that culturally, it's not something I should feel guilty about. And I really think I can be a better mom this way. Focus on giving the baby what I was able to give Nora and let Nora enjoy her daycare like she always does and have that extra bit of education(pre-school) t prepare her for KG that I might be too overwhelmed to give her if I have two kids full time.
What is your point of view on this? Has anyone accepted a similar luxury and how did it go? Anyone have personal experience of thinking this set-up could have helped them? Anyone think I'm exaggerating if I choose to continue to send Nora to daycare during this year?