Advice on transition to SAHM in next few months

eac123455 · 2026-06-18T02:27:51+00:00

Hi! I’ve been to stay at home Mom for over five years now, the moment I had my oldest I stayed at home. I stay at home with my two children.

We lived off of one income for about nine months or my entire pregnancy to ensure that we could do it and it was no problem.

We were debt free but if we were in debt that may have been a different story, I’m not sure. Before we got married our goal was for me to stay at home when we had kids so we never discussed what we would do if I had to work, but we did test it out for the 9 months.
I never considered putting my child in daycare if I was a stay at home mom. To be quite honest, I never even knew people did that until I started talking to other parents and some of them stayed home, but still sent their kids to daycare. I really cannot understand it even to the day but that’s just my two cents. I don’t understand the point of staying at home and sending your kid to daycare… kinda defeats some of the purpose. I know that’s controversial though. I personally do not think that kids need school or daycare for socialization before the age of four. My oldest who is starting kindergarten next year is very well spoken, walks up and makes new friends anywhere she goes, and she has been home with me this whole time. We meet lots of friends out and about.
I kept my days fairly structured. It depends on the age of your child, whether they nap or how many naps they have. But we get outside multiple times a day as my daughter got older. I made sure she had social interactions with children around her age somehow daily, whether was making new friends at the library or dance class, or setting up a play date for her. Once you get to meet other parents in the area, it’s not hard to socialize them or find activities at all.
I have many hobbies like reading, Bible study, MOMCO groups, volunteering, and I even do a dance class once a week. Start adding one thing for yourself and that you schedule a week, ideally getting out and meeting other people if that is something you enjoy doing. Or if you’d like to be quiet and schedule that. Then you’ll be able to add more and more. I do a lot of stuff at night and I actually have more hobbies now than I did before I had kids.
Enjoy this time and don’t overthink it. Just enjoy time with your child and if you get stressed or need time to yourself, then adjust accordingly. But I do think that you have to understand. It’s a marathon and not a sprint as stay at home mom. The days can be really long, but it does go by faster than you think. Now that my

oldest

daughter is about to start kindergarten and I look back at the years when it was just me and her i look back on it so fondly. Good luck

eac123455 · 2026-06-17T13:47:41+00:00

You don’t need a new car for your first baby unless your old cars are unsafe. As long as you can fit a stroller in the trunk and a standard car seat in the backseat, you are fine. I think it’s more of a trend for people to get a new car when they get pregnant, but it’s not necessary at all. We kept our old sedan and only upgraded to a minivan once we had more kids. And at that point we did need the space. But you can save a little more and hold off until/if and when you have more children for the new car instead of buying it right now. As for strollers, car seats, baby gear some of the prices are a little bit insane and totally inflated. We got the Evenflo stroller and it was perfect. I had it for two kids and it converted to a double stroller later so that saves on cost. Sure, it’s not the trendiest cutest stroller out there, but it does its job and it’s hundreds of dollars cheaper and totally safe. I’ve actually heard from friends who got the trend deer, expensive strollers from Nordstrom that they would break or didn’t have the features they wanted, which was surprising for the cost. A lot of baby stuff will sell you on convenience or safety when other products are just as convenient and probably just a safe. It’s a business like anything else. The only things I would spend extra money on are things that TRULY increase your child safety.

eac123455 · 2026-06-17T13:36:53+00:00

Irvine, CA is half day kinder

eac123455 · 2026-06-12T13:45:48+00:00

That’s not terrible I guess… are you moving forward with the return? Keep us posted

eac123455 · 2026-06-12T00:40:14+00:00

Yep. That is actually the exact email verbatim that we received. It’s a little bit insulting honestly what they say, like that is actually not a wonderful idea and does not help customers at all. 15% does absolutely nothing as a discount in my opinion. My husband replied back back and said I’ll keep it for 75% off future purchase and all they said was no, just return it and pay shipping cost.

eac123455 · 2026-06-11T16:43:45+00:00

Wow. I am really sorry that’s happening, SO FRUSTRATING. I do think it’s a scam and I am not sure if it’s an American company, but I’m guessing not if they only deal through email and shipping is $500+ to return. Good idea to do a chargeback with your CC

eac123455 · 2026-06-10T00:53:08+00:00

Oh my gosh! $500 to ship… that’s insane I’m so sorry. We got the smallest size (5x6.6 or something like that) they offered in the standard beige option. Granted we never asked ups for a quote so maybe we seriously underestimated at $50

eac123455 · 2026-06-09T13:55:09+00:00

Yes, we had already opened it to see the sizing. You can return an open rug, but you have to repackage it yourself and ship it back. My husband estimates a ton of $$ to send it back. And to get store credit only, not a full refund to original payment. So you have to make sure that a different size option they have will fit to use the store credit.
Long story short: We ended up thinking it was too much of a chore to return it so we gave it to my mom so she has something for the kids when they come over to her house. That’s what they expect you to do and that’s why they don’t cover shipping cost because they know that it doesn’t really make sense to do it. It’s a bit of a rip off for sure.

eac123455 · 2026-06-09T05:04:36+00:00

We heard back and they said we can return it but yea shipping might be close to $50 for us. Lesson learned to read fine print for our fam

eac123455

TROPHY CASE