Husband - on wives working outside the home - random thoughts at 5am

Well here we go.. Can open, worms everywhere.. A subject close to my heart made more heart-breaking this morning (it is 5am now) when my kid spiked a 102.4 temp.

My wife works outside the home as a nurse taking care of extremely sick babies in a neonatal ICU. This is a job we both feel she was born to do and a very important one at that. Somehow though that doesn’t make things any easier when her kid is sick.

We share parenting 100% and have even worked our schedules to allow my daughter to be with one of us at all times. Usually when the kid gets sick, she will pick one of us to cling to and today that happens to be mama. The only problem is that the nifty schedule I mentioned requires that my wife works weekends which today is.

It really rips at my wife’s heart to feel torn between working one of her 2.5 days per week and being with her child. So far, mama is up and getting ready for work but I figure if my daughter asks to be held one more time that my wife will be at home today.

I know there are die hard feminists out there who say that a woman really can have it all and there are die hard homemakers who will use this as an example of why working mothers are evil. But as with everything, the true answer lies somewhere between the two extremes. Steph had a stay at home mom and I had a working one and we are both equally scarred :-P.

I know how hard it is for my wife to make the decision she will face in a bit but I am hoping it helps to know that if she does choose to go to work, our daughter will be perfectly fine 2 seconds after she leaves. There isn’t anything dad can’t handle or at least, dad is smart enough to know when he reaches that point :-).

I guess that is how all of us guys are as husbands. I think one of the best things we try to provide for our wives is stability and support. My wife is free to make whichever decision she wants and I feel like I have done a good job if she can trust that our kid will be taken care of either way.