Working mom guilt
I have a 10 week old baby boy and I will be returning to work at 13 weeks PP. We chose an in-home daycare for our baby to attend because we thought it would be a similar environment to going to “grandma’s house”. There will be a mother and daughter with six kids. Our baby will be the youngest and the next oldest will be a 6 month old with the other kids being between the ages of 2 and 4. I work 3 10 hour shifts a week and my husband works 5 days a week and we never know what time he will be off because he’s just done when his work is done for the day. My son will likely spend quite a few 10+ hour days in daycare, which makes me feel very guilty. I have been getting an influx of videos on social media sites talking about how disadvantaged kids are that go to daycare, how ruined their attachment styles will become, and how selfish working moms are because they just want to maintain their current lifestyle rather than care for their kids. I DO need to work at least 20 hours a week to maintain my benefits because my husband’s job does not offer any. I accumulate all of our retirement (except for our roths….my job doubles my contribution up to 10%) and I have incredible health insurance. We also are fortunate to save about $40k/year extra to hopefully be able to buy some land and build our dream home. I could do without the cash to stay home with my son, but we simply don’t feel comfortable going without my benefits. My husband’s job also is not nearly as steady and reliable as mine although he makes a very high salary when business is good. My husband also is working towards starting his own business, which is supplemented by my income, too. Me working really financially benefits my son, which is important to us, but because I had a really bad relationship with my parents, his emotional well-being is also extremely important to me. It’s so hard to know if I’m doing the right thing. I feel guilty that I did not just wait to have kids until we were at the point where I didn’t need to work, but who knows how long that would have taken. I do have the ability to find a weekend option job, but I would miss out on us having weekends all together, and I worry about my husbands mental health because he is someone that needs to have time for himself, and in his busy seasons, he’d either be working or caring for our son alone if we did that. Some weeks he works 60-70 hours. I just don’t know what to do or how to feel less guilty. I guess I’m just looking for reassurance that I’m doing the right thing and that there are many moms with little ones that are well-adjusted and happy despite going to daycare from a young age. I’m sure they exist, but my brain just needs the comfort!
Posted Sep 2, 2026, 12:34 PM UTC