Wednesday, March 31, 2010

To Be Employed or Not....

So.... working at the YMCA has been beneficial for me emotionally.... I get out of the house... it's not all about me and Christopher.... I feel like I'm contributing to society as a whole.

But financially it's been not so great... the extra income has put us over the income guidelines for WIC (Women Infant and Children) Program. Gets us free food, able to shop at the farmer's market in the summer with vouchers. The free food is what we like most- Christopher does have to eat, ya know!

But because I work on Friday afternoons, when they have NEST meetings, I am no longer earning points to gain free diapers... so we now have to pay for those out of pocket- I can't remember the last time before that I actually bought and paid for diapers with my money... that's how great the NEST program is!

Plus I decided to put Christopher into the Child Development Center to be around other kids his age.... his language skills aren't what some of his peers are- but then again he's a boy, and usually when he has something to say, he will say it! But I'm unsure of how the YMCA is charging us- because if they are charging us for a full day of care, when Christopher is only there for a couple of hours- I might have to look at other options.....

One option might be dropping him off at my neighbor's house- because she has a home day care and it's right next door, which would save on gas and travel costs of dropping Christopher off! I will have to see and take another look at our options for Christopher while I'm at work!

Summer may be an entirely different story.... I may be bringing in more money than now- working 6 hour shifts... but not more than 32 hours a week.

Yes, I'm a stay at home mom, but I have a job- I think I need it for my sanity!
It's not as if I'm not happy with the Child Care center at the YMCA- they are great- and they do tons of activities and art projects with him- but it's almost advantageous for me to drop him off at 8am or whenever and go work another part- time job in the mornings.

So these things all add up, gas costs for driving to the Y, then to the church-site, child care costs, clothing costs, etc.

The budget doesn't call for the food that WIC pays for or even diapers- and diapers are expensive, as most of you moms know!

We'll be looking into our options for the little one- as one of my co-workers put it "he just needs to come here!" Yes and no. That'd be great on one level... on another... all mommies need a break from their children- and this is my short break!

Life goes on and I have some investigating to do!