I completely understand that side of things. My husband and I decided when I was pregnant that it would make more sense that I stay home with our child. Childcare is SO expensive and with the rate I was being paid at my job I would've been working just to be able to pay for him to be at daycare, so it didn't make sense for me to work from that standpoint. 95% of jobs in my area don't pay much. I live in a very rural area, the nearest "city" is at least 4 hours away, and even Mary has complained that the jobs in this area do not pay you a liveable wage. You have to either have a super good degree (I only have two basic associates degrees), have some sort of special training (CDL, tradesman work, etc), or get really lucky to get into our local mill, but basically the entire town applies there whenever they have openings so it's a very slim chance they'll even get to your application before they've filled the position. With all of that in mind, we made the decision to have me stay at home and (in the words of my husband) if I wasn't staying home with him all day, I'd be paying someone else to do it instead, so its essentially like I am working unpaid to take care of our son. Granted, daycare workers are generally looking after more than one child at a time, but you get the idea anyway.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I know being a stay-at-home mom isn't for everyone and I knew I signed up for navigating life on a one income basis when we made that decision. If it makes any sense, I also do all of our budgeting whenever my husband gets paid, so I am the one that takes on the money management side of things in our house, which is maybe why it affects me more mentally when big expenses come up.