Rebecca Meyer
This woman and her husband have a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old child. She’s been a stay-at-home mother for six years and would love to return to her job as a community social worker.
The timing would be perfect because their oldest child is in school, and they could drop their youngest child off at daycare while she and her husband were at work during the day. When she brought up the subject with her husband, he wasn’t on the same page.
“He thinks having a parent home is valuable and great for the child. That is how he was raised, while I was raised in a family where both parents had to work,” she said.
After bickering for a while, her husband said he couldn’t prevent her from working, but he added that she’d be paying for all childcare and work-related costs. She thought his statement was terrible because he was aware that she didn’t earn a lot of money as a social worker, so most of her earnings would go toward childcare.
During the conversation, her husband said he’d continue paying the expenses he already has but expressed that she’d need to cover her work-related expenses and childcare since she was the one who wanted to put their youngest child in daycare while she worked.
They have a joint bank account, and her husband luckily doesn’t control how she spends money. The only reason he’d ask her about her spending would be if she was spending an outrageous amount.
“I told him we should split costs equitably, and he told me flat-out no. He claimed that because I wish to work, I should be the one who carries that cost. I don’t know what to feel or do,” she explained.
If she returned to work, her salary would start at about $40,000, and she’d work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. With the commute to and from work, she’d be away from home for about 10 hours a day. Since she and her husband only have one vehicle, they’d have to purchase a second vehicle.
If they agreed to this plan, she would drop off their child at daycare, and her husband would be picking up their child at the end of his workday. Their oldest child is enrolled in private school, and she and her husband have always been on the same page about enrolling their children in private school.
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