The decision to leave the workforce...

My friend and I were talking about homeschooling, and she had many questions.  She is a nurse and is off from work for a season.  We discussed the option of returning to work versus staying at home with our kids....  I want to share this story for her and thought others would like to hear it as well.
I felt the overwhelming need to be with my children!  That is why I went to get my teaching certificate in the first place; so I'd be on their school schedule.  Still, I hated that I spent all day with other people's children while my kids spent all day with other teachers.  The teachers weren't terrible people, I just missed them so much and was so busy all evening. I could not spend the time with them they deserved.  I cooked, cleaned up the kitchen, did homework (with one of them occasionally if needed), did laundry, gave baths, let them watch TV while I cleaned up, said prayers, and tucked them in, got ready for the next day's work, and it was to start all over again the next day.  I was exhausted mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  There was NO playing.  NO reading aloud a fun book.  NO fun in the back yard. NO cooking together.  NO family-time games.  NO coloring with them.  NO picnics (for no reason).  NO pretending. NO bike rides.  NO catching lightning bugs with them.  I was too busy and tired!  I am compulsive about my house being clean - not necessarily tidy, but sanitary!  We were all stressed all the time.

Leaving the workforce was scary because we had some bills to pay off.  I was leaving the teaching position where my kids went to school and going to homeschool.  I wanted to escape the rat race and make my home peaceful.  We felt God calling us to do this.  I wanted my heart to be turned completely back toward my husband and my children.

God allowed us to sell some property that we owned around April; we paid off Sam's vehicle.  We put our huge brick home (which was in an elite neighborhood) on the market in August; it sold in less than two months (which was a miracle considering the housing market).  I had several problems with my vehicle which were never completely fixed; we filed a lemon law in December and won with no contest from the manufacturer.  We then purchased a 2004 minivan which was perfect for our family, and I had no payment with it!

I honestly believe that since we stepped out in faith to homeschool for the next school year and set our eyes on what God wants for our family, He supplied all we needed.  We downsized our mortgage and built a new house (without brick and in a regular neighborhood).  We wanted to be debt-free, and are now, except the construction loan for our house.

If you feel the call to homeschool, consider it a high calling that He will allow you to achieve.  A Godly woman's first priority is her family!  If we don't succeed at rearing our children, what have we really accomplished?  I'm surely not saying that a mother must not be in the workforce!  Circumstances are different for every family; however, I feel sure that society has set up the rules that say a wife should work outside the home.  This second income will provide the finer things - make life easier.  I would say to ponder the future and see what you plan to gain by working or by being with your children each day.  Which one, on your death bed, would you regret more - working the hours away or being with your children, rearing them to love and fear God?