Staying At Home With Children...

Staying home with my children was a tough decision, and is a tough decision for many stay at home parents to make. I had a great job and worked for a great supervisor, and had a wonderful repore with all the employees. I even got a promotion before I went on maternity leave. Some will say, actually many will say why would you not return to work if you had all of those great things. Seriously, how many people can honestly say that they love their job? In today's society two incomes are usually needed to make ends meet. So why not return to a great place of employement where the pay was good, and the employees were nice, and for the most part everyone got along?

I went on a long maternity leave, and finally me and my better half decided that me being home with the kids would be best. I was torn. I enjoyed working for my boss, and I did not want to leave her without anyone to assist her, but what I wanted even more was to be at home with my kids. I went back and forth in my mind of what it would be like dropping my newborn off at day care (I did not have to do this with my first child, I stayed home with her for the first year), and dropping my school aged daughter off at school, which she would then go to after school care until I was able to pick her up. It saddened me to think about my newborn son sleeping in a carseat most of the day or strange crib, constantly getting sick, and not recieving the love and affection from mommy or daddy throughout the day. It saddened me even more thinking about my daughter being dropped off before school, so I could make it to work on time, and then staying after school, until I was able to pick her up. With me at work, their father at work, and the kids at day care and school, when would we see each other, or should I say when would we really spend any quality time together? If I would have gone back to work, there would have only been a couple hours in between picking up the children and bedtime to do anything. After picking up the children, I would have to help with home work, try to spend some quality time with the baby, cook dinner(eat, hopefully we would all be able to sit down together), clean, get everything ready for the next day, read bedtime stories, put kids to sleep, then finally it would be time for me to try and wind down, hope to spend some quality time with my honey, go to sleep, wake up and do it all over again. I know many, many people do this every day, without a complaint without hesitation, and I commend them for doing it, it is not easy. I just could not see myself and my honey working to death to pay someone else to raise our kids. Part of the joys of having kids in being able to watch them grow up. Again, not everyone is able to stay home or even wants to stay home, these are just my personal opinions. Being a mommy is a never ending job, but being a stay at home mom, is even tougher. You hardly ever get a break, but I still would not change anything.

For those of you considering staying home, it is a tough decision and it should be well thought out, and you should have a back up plan, a couple of back up plans if possible. It can be done, but you will have to budget, communicate with spouse/significant other, be supportive of one another (this includes the entire family), and most importantly, have faith, believe that you made the right decision.

Protect Your Health

There is no better time like the present to take care of your health. Friends may go, family may go, finances may even change, but your health needs to last you a lifetime. No one else can physically change your health for you; you have to make the decision to change your health for yourself. Protecting your health starts with making lifestyle changes. Examples of this would be changing your eating habits, i.e. not eating too late, or not eating too much junk food. Being cautious of what you put in your body will take you a long way. When you have good nutrition, and your body heals itself from the inside out, you feel better, you experience less health issues, you are more likely to exercise, you increase your energy, you are less likely to need prescriptions filled from the doctor, the list can go on and on. There are many benefits to taking care of your health.
A side note, most prescriptions are just a quick fix and they only band-aid the problem they do not necessarily fix it, and some prescriptions may even cause problems in other areas that you did not have before, then you will need a prescription for that issue. The cycle can just continue on and on, leaving someone with many "pills" or "prescription drugs" to take and not improving their health. They actually begin to hinder their health. People have to start asking more questions about what is being prescribed to them. That is what doctors are for, to help you improve your health. Time and time again, many will go to the doctor for an issue the doctor will prescribe something, and the patient will not ask why it is being prescribed if there are any alternative methods (natural) to fix the ailment, what side effects will it cause etc. If more people started holding doctors accountable for what they were recommending, and questioning what the doctors are recommending, in turn the doctors would question what the pharmaceutical companies are trying to pump patients with, and there would be more healthier people. I think doctors are great, and there are many out there that truly care about their patients and their well being, but one does need to be aware that there are some doctors out there to strictly turn a profit. It is sad, but it is true. Many will prescribe unnecessary prescriptions, prescribe prescriptions knowing it will cause other issues, and will not necessarily volunteer the side effects, especially since they should be listed on the bottle (you have to do your research), schedule unnecessary appointments. All these things put extra money in their pockets.
A perfect personal example for me would be a pediatrician recommending that my daughter be on asthma medication through the whole spring season, as well as prescribing two orders of two of the five medications she was prescribing for me to pick up for my daughter(basically increasing how many drugs I was going to pick up). Although I had benefits to cover some of the costs, I still had to spend close to $100 on what the pediatrician recommended, and I did not even pick up everything she prescribed. Also, that bag of medication is still sitting in a closet and it has been for over a year. I just could not see my daughter taking drugs that have steroids in them and all other kinds of chemicals that would not guarantee her health, and in the long run make her much bigger then she needs to be considering the amounts of hormones, as well as potentially having her little fragile body dependent on the medication. Of course I would never put her breathing (lungs) in jeopardy that is certainly nothing to play with, and I gave her some of the medication to help with the wheezing, but that incident just made me do more research and find ways to decrease her chances of having any flair ups in the future which would lead to her needing the asthma medication. When you make lifestyle changes, your health can improve dramatically. We have an air filter, we do not clean the house or wash our clothes with harsh chemicals (bleach is a big do not use in our house), she gets good nutrition, and on occasion supplements to help with allergies and asthma and lots of exercise, and limit the amount of dust she is around, basically limit her exposure to anything that would cause a flair up (being cautious of what you surround yourself with is protecting your outer health, or outer body). She has not had any asthma flair ups since these changes. At the signs of a cold we make sure she gets lots of vitamin C and I give her supplements that have assisted her with allergies and asthma. Basically boost her immune system to fight off the cold which can cause flair ups.
So why would that pediatrician recommend or write all of those prescriptions, yes some may say because she truly cared, but in my opinion to get her bonus check. Yes, for those of you that are not aware, doctors get bonuses when they write out a certain amount of prescription drugs, I don?t know if there is a magic number per month that allows them this bonus, or if it is per prescription, but they are rewarded. In saying that, you must take care of your health; protect your health, as well as the health of your family. It starts with educating yourself or seeking out better ways to increase your health or maintain your health. This is not an over night process, especially if you have a lot of bad habits. It is a process and it will take time and dedication to make the changes. Maximize your nutrition, exercise, and yes drink lots of water. I must say it, but before you make changes to your ?diet? you should consult with your doctor, everyone?s situation is different so you want to make sure what ever you are considering doing is not going to interact negatively with what you are currently doing, i.e. those that have health concerns and/or are taking medications. If you do not feel like you can make lifestyle changes alone, get some outside support. When I say outside, I mean anyone other than yourself that is going to give you the mental support and motivation you need to keep striving to reach your health goals. This person can be living in your home, i.e. spouse, the first step is asking for the help if you need it. Find a system that works for you, there are many methods or ways to go about becoming healthy, and every single one of them is not going to work for you or you may not like how it is structured; keep looking until you find what is appealing to you. Finding a system you like is what is going to keep you pushing forward easily. Most importantly do not give up, your health is important and it is necessary to take care of it. Don?t let the work of becoming healthy scare you, it is worth it(less hospital stays, less doctor visits, less prescription drugs, less money out of your pocket), and I am sure your body will thank you.