We live in an area where probably 95% of moms AND dads work full time. A lot of kids in daycare and after school programs. Lots of big houses, expensive extra curricular activities, etc.
DH works full time. I work as a casual on DH's days off, so I work about once or twice every 2 weeks. I just enjoy doing it for the adult time and it gives us a tiny bit of play money. We enjoy our family time together on DH's days off and we like that the kids don't come home from school to a babysitter, etc. But the downfall is that we cannot afford a lot of the things that most of the other families can.
When my oldest DS was in preschool I made friends with a few different moms. We used to chat but never really got together without the kids. We had playdates with the kids though.
I've tried ALL summer to get my kids together with other kids for playdates and my kids have had ZERO playdates. All of ds's close friends are in swim club. It's the swimclub that DS begged me to put him in but we couldn't afford the $300.00 annual fee. Now all of these parents go on trips together EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND for swim meets. They are all on my facebook and I see the pictures of them all hanging out and the messages to each other says how they have the best friends ever and how much they love each other, etc, etc, etc. I've tried asking people to go out for coffee, going to the movies, going for a walk, but nobody ever can. They have to work, they have swimclub/gymnastics/hockey etc. It's always something.
I want so badly to be able to put my kids in different activities but they are so damn expensive. We make too much to get any sort of assistance, but we don't make enough to be able to afford the activities. We never seem to be able to get ahead. We saved up a ton of money last year, and lost it all to a home renovation gone bad. We saved up a tiny bit of money and then my car tire blew so we had to replace all four because they were all starting to split. We are so far in the hole right now and DH's truck needs tires.
So now my son will go back to school and all the kids will be gearing up for hockey and I know my ds will ask to play. Once again I'll have to tell him no because we can't afford it. I just hope that one day he will realize great it is to be able to come home to your mom after school rather than a daycare. I could very well pick up more shifts but then we would be missing out on all of our family time.
DH works full time. I work as a casual on DH's days off, so I work about once or twice every 2 weeks. I just enjoy doing it for the adult time and it gives us a tiny bit of play money. We enjoy our family time together on DH's days off and we like that the kids don't come home from school to a babysitter, etc. But the downfall is that we cannot afford a lot of the things that most of the other families can.
When my oldest DS was in preschool I made friends with a few different moms. We used to chat but never really got together without the kids. We had playdates with the kids though.
I've tried ALL summer to get my kids together with other kids for playdates and my kids have had ZERO playdates. All of ds's close friends are in swim club. It's the swimclub that DS begged me to put him in but we couldn't afford the $300.00 annual fee. Now all of these parents go on trips together EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND for swim meets. They are all on my facebook and I see the pictures of them all hanging out and the messages to each other says how they have the best friends ever and how much they love each other, etc, etc, etc. I've tried asking people to go out for coffee, going to the movies, going for a walk, but nobody ever can. They have to work, they have swimclub/gymnastics/hockey etc. It's always something.
I want so badly to be able to put my kids in different activities but they are so damn expensive. We make too much to get any sort of assistance, but we don't make enough to be able to afford the activities. We never seem to be able to get ahead. We saved up a ton of money last year, and lost it all to a home renovation gone bad. We saved up a tiny bit of money and then my car tire blew so we had to replace all four because they were all starting to split. We are so far in the hole right now and DH's truck needs tires.
So now my son will go back to school and all the kids will be gearing up for hockey and I know my ds will ask to play. Once again I'll have to tell him no because we can't afford it. I just hope that one day he will realize great it is to be able to come home to your mom after school rather than a daycare. I could very well pick up more shifts but then we would be missing out on all of our family time.
We feel like this often, and if it weren't for the cheaper classes at the Y, ds would not get to do much. All the leagues/sports like hockey, little league, martial arts, etc., are just so freakin' expensive that I don't know how families do it. We live in a fairly large area so we've managed to find other families in a similar position as us, but dh keeps talking about moving much further out to save money and be out of the city. All I can think about is how isolating it would be for ds (and me!). 
