A lot of new mothers consider whether it would be possible for them to quit their job and stay at home and look after the children on a full time basis. This can be an agonizing decision for many couples. There is the attraction of spending all the time possible with their new little baby or other children and providing with a healthy, happy, loving home, but this is offset by the need to go back to work and start bringing in the much needed second income. If considered carefully, staying at home can be a reality for many women.

With generous maternity leave options, many companies may already give new mothers up to six months at home. This time can be used wisely to decide whether staying at home is all it’s cracked up to be. This can be a god time to evaluate whether you and your sanity can manage to stay at home. It is important to remember that with maternity leave options, there may be a penalty if you do not return to work for at least a few months. Make sure you know your company policy otherwise you may be stung for hundreds or thousands of pounds.

Apart from that, new parents must look at what sort of income they are likely to expect if one of them becomes a stay at home parent. Many costs will be greatly reduced. The costs of travel to and from work each day and of maintaining and replacing work clothes will likely disappear.

Then also, there will be no childcare costs if you are opting to stay at home and look after your children yourself. These are often a very large part of the monthly budget and will no longer be necessary, unless you wish to work at home. Even then, you may not need full time care. In this way, a very large part of the income that was needed before will no longer be needed.

For a new mother, there will be increased costs of looking after the baby. This can be quite considerable in the first few months to one year. So it may be necessary for her to take on a reduced role or part time job, maybe working from home.

There will probably still be the same bills to pay and these may even be increased slightly if there is someone constantly at home now, rather than before when the house stood empty all day. Heating and lighting bills may increase.

An important factor to consider which many people overlook is pension provision. If someone intends to stay at home over a considerable time, then they must have adequate retirement plans to make sure that they still have an income once they reach pensionable age.

It is also a very good option to stay in touch with people at work, or at least to keep an eye on the jobs market. Then if that dream job, or the need to go back to work does arise, then you will be best placed to apply.