I'm going to agree with everything Nancy said
For realz, that is a question only you can answer for you and for your family. There are, approximately, one billion different opinions on what you should or should not do. Ignore each and every one of them.
You will find that there are the following attitudes among people and both of them are equally hurtful (IMO):
1. I didn't have children to have them be raised by someone else
2. I didn't go to school to get an education to waste it
Ignore those. Decide what is right for you and for yours and ignore everyone else because everyone is going to have an opinion about what the right thing to do is.
Also, spending time doing something other than fulltime in person mothering (and there are many options: working outside of the home, working inside the home, volunteering, whatever) does not have to be in the box 40 hours/week M-F 8-5. You can figure out what works.
Now, if you ask the question of what others have done, I would answer it the following way (not that I think my way is the right way for others; I think it is the right way for me and my family):
*I stayed home until my first born was one.
*I then worked a 40 hour work week which was brutal and wasn't something I felt was in the best interest of my family, but which worked out far better than I thought.
*When my second born was born, I switched to working two days a week and brought him with me until he was 6 months.
*Both kids then went to daycare two days/week until the baby was two.
*Now, I work three days/week (24 hours/week)
*My goal is to eventually transition to five days/week but keeping the 24/hours and being there when the school bus picks the kids up and when the school bus drops them off.
*I believe - and this is JMO for me and mine - that it is more important for me to be home when they are teens than when they are toddlers.
*I also believe that breastfeeding is critical.
But, that is what I've decided is right for me and mine.
You have to figure out what is right for you and yours and you will figure it out.
