Why do you work?

[c'est moi]

I've been wondering this for awhile. Do you work because you need to or do you work because you want to? I'm just trying to get a feel for what motivates us to be part of this forum.

To answer my own question, right now I'm working because I want to. I'm a teacher and I like the work I do. My ideal job would be part-time. I'd get to teach and still get to be at home with my child during part of the day.

[kirstenb]

Both. I loved being on maternity leave after having my sons, but was ready to go back to work once it was over (had 18 weeks off). I don't love my job right now, but I enjoy work, I take pride in doing well at it, and I love having interaction with other adults during the day. I think some people make amazing SAHPs, but I know that I am not one of them. My kids thrive and love going to daycare, and when we are home I know I am a better mom because of working. I think part time would be wonderful, but as someone going through a divorce, I need a full time job.

[pacificbliss]

I voted that I work because I like to/want to. I enjoy my job, find it very fulfilling, and appreciate the lifestyle 2 incomes allows us. DS is thriving in school and that helps. If any of this changed of course we would re-evaluate.

[EFmom]

I guess I'd say both. I'm not SAHM material. I'd hate it and would be stir-crazy in no time. I love my job and feel like I'm making the world a better place in my own small way.

We could probably survive on dh's salary, but it would be pretty grim. He's a public school teacher. We'd live in a worse house, in a lousy school district and my kids wouldn't be able to have any of the lessons or activities that enrich their lives.

We don't exactly live in the lap of luxury and are quite frugal living on two salaries, but I'm a believer in saving for retirement and college educations, both of which wouldn't happen living on one salary.

It would be nice to have more free time. In an ideal world, I'd work three days a week, but there are no part-time professional positions in my field.

[JessieBird]

I thought I was going back to work because I wanted to and because I loved my job. Turns out it's all different now. My performance is way down and my heart isn't in it. So now I am only working because I have to - I got 1 year paid mat leave but I owe the organization 1 year of work - and we still need the money. Now DH's business is doing better and I'm pregnant again. So I'll work until the new baby comes and then I'll take an extended leave of absence without pay (I can take 1 year mat leave + 5 years personal leave without actually quitting) to test the waters to see if I am cut out to be a SAHM and to see if we can really afford it. Right now, I'm pretty sure I'll prefer to be at home but I may feel differently once the reality of not having a career or my own paycheque sinks in.

[Peony]

I work part time because I want to after being a SAHM for 7 years. My work will be very part time, right now it is more then I would like because I have to interview, hire, and train 3 employees, after that I work mostly from home which is almost unheard of in my specialty. I am on call all the time for phone support but I am used to that. I have volunteered for the past 5 years and had almost the same job without pay to further my skills and make myself marketable for when I did return to work.

I like having something that is for me, and I enjoy being mentally challenged in creative ways. The extra money is nice but not needed.

[Alyantavid]

Because I have to.

Dh works part time and is in college. So most of the income and all the insurance falls on me. I've always worked and carried the insurance, so it's just how it is for now. I really liked working part time though. I did arrange my schedule so I wokr 7-3:30 and do get to spend more time during the day with my kids.

[mambera]

I don't have to work in the sense that we could survive on DH's salary (I know that is really lucky). However I'm in the 3rd year of a 4-year residency training program right now and if I quit I will be a non-board-certified, basically unemployable MD.

I guess I work not because I want to work right now, but because I will want to work in the future and dropping out now would make that really difficult.

I would love to be a SAHM while my dd (and any future dc) is small but I definitely would want to be working once they are in school.

[lyterae]

I work because I have to.. I don't know if I will continue to work once we hit the point where I don't have to anymore. We're working hard to get out of debt right now.

[StephandOwen]

I work because I want to.

Between the child support I get from my ex and the income dp has, we could probably live on just his income. It wouldn't be fun, we'd have to sell our house and move to a smaller one in a not so good neighborhood, we wouldn't be doing anything extra or going on vacations or going to see my family as much as we do. But we could survive.

But I WANT all the things we have now, so I work part time (and go to school full time). I have my schedule exactly where I want it right now- DS is in Kindergarten 5 days a week from 7:45-2:35. Mon/Wed/Fri I work from 8-2 so I drop ds off and pick him up. Tues/Thurs I'm at school from 8-1:45 so I drop ds off and pick him up. Then I have a Thurs night class from 6-8 (ds stays with dp or dp's dad). I'm going to school to be a teacher so I will, hopefully, have the schedule I would like to (school breaks and summers off with ds).

[jeminijad]

I work because I have to- both from a strictly financial sense in that I carry the insurance & am the only steadily employed adult in the house right now- and also, because I will not put myself at anyone's mercy, $$ wise.

[GuildJenn]

I work for a lot of reasons.

I was home for a year of mat leave, which was great overall, and then I worked from home for almost another year. I didn't find the PT work from home thing very easy, even though I had thought it would be ideal.

And being at home full time I felt I was losing me. I'm sure there were other ways to resolve it, but going back to work FT really worked.

I learned about myself that I really do like a job where I have some room to create a vision and implement it and my PT job was not that.

I also learned that although I love my son immensely and if he needed me to be home, I would be there, that the frustration of not having a lot of room to be me creatively was impacting on my happiness and even my relationship with him - especially after 4 pm.

Financially we could manage on my husband's salary - but it would be tight. I also would be up at night. I like collecting pension and seniority points. And I like knowing that I could support my family (albeit in a different lifestyle) if I had to.

Since going back to work I can add a few more things. My husband's relationship to our son improved a lot when our roles equalized. Having to trust daycare staff has brought a lot of peace into my life that yes, people can care for my son more than adequately and I don't have to live in fear.

[amma_mama]

Right now I work because I have to - DH recently finished a PhD and has condulting work but not a full-time salaried position. So I have the consistent earning stream and insurance and other benefits. Ideally, I would like to work part-time (maybe 5 hours per day), but in my field that does not translate well into a reduced work week (though I did that for a while after maternity leave), but independent consulting, with "full-time" work when on assignment and not working at all other times (or looking for the next assignment).

We are househunting so I expect to have to keep working in some capacity for the foreseeable future.

[Magistra]

It's a little bit of both for me.

Right now, I'm working very part-time as a substitute teacher, but am applying for full-time teaching jobs for next year. I'm also working on my doctorate, finishing up my teacher certification, and finding a new rhythm with our 8-week-old.

My partner makes enough to cover our expenses, but we had a rough middle part of the year when she was laid-off and then getting some work, but not enough and without benefits. We would really like me to have something that has benefits and allows us to pump up our savings again since we went through so much of that. A teaching position would also pay enough for me to cover a little more than half our monthly expenses in case she got laid-off again (which would let us use our savings more slowly than last time). Teaching is also generally more stable than a lot of fields.

I wonder how many people are in a similar position, in terms of being gun-shy thanks to this economy.

[Megan73]

Not to be snarky - really! - but do any dads get asked if they want or need to work?
I'm lucky, like some PPs, I live in Canada and get 12 months of maternity leave which I think makes this question easier to answer.
When DS was 1, I thought about staying home for longer (my mom, who always worked, was horrified!) because I just couldn't imagine leaving him. Eight months later, the anticipation was much worse than the transition. DS loves daycare and I'm happy to be back at work despite some long days when I barely get home in time to nurse him to sleep. Luckily my wonderful DH has more reasonable hours.
Had I stayed home for a few years, I would have given up a stable job I love in a shrinking field with NO chance of getting a similar one. My career, really.
We could afford to live on DH's salary - only because we're cheap and our house is paid off - but working is important to me, not just the me I'll be when DS (and we hope another baby) is small but for the rest of my working life.

[dawningmama]

A little of both. My earnings from part-time work cover some bills and living expenses. I think the most important part of my earnings, though, is the retirement contributions I make. If I didn't work and dp contributed enough to cover both of us, we would surely not have enough to cover our bills and living expenses.

[Mosaic]

I'd like to pick both, but I went with "like/want".

Financially, I'm sure we could figure out a say to "make it" without my salary. I work full-time, and I carry our (very good) health insurance, contribute to 401k, and still contribute almost half of our household income to pay bills, etc., so removing that would be rough. And honestly, before my student loans were paid off, neither DH nor I could justify me SAH.

But really, I *love* my work. I'm an environmental scientist, so I feel I'm making a difference. I work with great people, I find it challenging, and I've always been a bit of an academic/career-driven type. I also believe it sorta shifts the balance in the household, pushing us to work harder to make things fair and figure out a way to get it all done and still make family a priority.

And truthfully, I just don't have what it takes to stay home long-term.

[dawningmama]

It is a sign of the kyriarchy that men rarely to never get asked this kind of question.

That said, one of the reasons I do work is because for us to really live on one salary, that person would have to pretty much sell their soul to corporate culture and work 60 or more hours per week. I don't want that for either of us, and I don't want either parent absent from the family home that many hours a week. So, yes, I could probably quit my job and my husband could then be more ambitious at work and get the kind of upper management job that would cover my salary plus more, but that's not what any of us want.

Also, I work for the government and so my job and salary are quite stable. I can pretty much always work full-time or even a few more hours a week if things are tight or we need a little extra cash.

[colsxjack]

I am a DH. I never get asked this question. But I thought I would answer.

Right now my DW is 3 weeks away from going back to work after her maternity leave. We actually have another 8 weeks after that left and I am going to take them. It is an easy decision in that my wife is the "bread winner" and her work doesn't top up her maternity benefits anymore. Although I work for much lower pay, my benefits are topped up. (we live in Canada where you get 12 months paid maternity leave...but it is paid at about 50% of your salary. Some companies "top up" these benefits to a higher %age)

She is going back to work because she has to work. I am sure she wants to work too, I just do not think she wants to at this time when the LO is small.
I work because I have to and because I want to. I know that I like the schedule of working and I like the feeling that what I am doing makes a difference to people. I am planning to have a career change over the next couple of years to something that is less of a passion (although I am not passionless about it) but more flexible in terms of hours.
Although very different, both jobs would be considered in my field.

We have a 9 month old baby and hopefully will have at least a couple more, just bought our first home, have student loan debt and want to be able to work now to secure the future of our family. So we both have to work.

[Momily]

I'm a single/solo parent without a trust fund or a large bank account, so there's no doubt I "have to" work.

But I also love what I do. If I won the lottery, I'd still do what I do although maybe fewer hours or maybe like an indepedent contractor, except I think I'd offer my services on a sliding scale or maybe for free to low income families.