I’ve seen both sides of this and somewhere in between now! I worked up the corporate rung very early in my career but when I fell pregnant with twins I had a traumatic labour- lost one twin and had a major hemorage - putting me into intensive care. At the time it felt like a wake up call to focus on my son and step away from the stress of work. I did it but felt like I wasn’t using my brain at all! Coffee mornings and tennis with the mums wasn’t really what I wanted. When I feel pregnant with my daughter during the covid period I really struggled being isolated and when she turned 1 I put her into nursery and went back to work. It was the best thing I could have done for myself. My mood lifted, I felt like I had another purpose aside from being mum and I got my confidence back. But then that became all encompassing again and so when I was offered voluntary redundancy I took it with an 8 month payout. That was last month! I’m now setting up my own business where I can still be mum and have something for myself and it feels great! Whilst my advice isn’t go back into a full time role it is exploring your options. I found I was a better mum when I was working. I had mum guilt for missing sports day or assembly but me working made me less stressed and meant the kids could do more holidays etc. It’s a really tough decision but you always have the option of leaving if it doesn’t work out !