DaycareDebt | Zarinah Ivany: 'It has been hard to watch my career stall'
Zarinah Ivany doesn't regret staying home for a year to take care of her two four-year-old daughters, but it's been hard putting her career as an accountant on hold.
Her decision to become a stay-at-home mom was a matter of money versus time. She and her husband were paying $24,000 a year in fees, and almost all of her paycheque went to daycare.
"When you factor in the gas and you factor in lunches and everything else, it really wasn't worth me putting our family through it to go to work, so I decided to stay home. So I am very grateful [that] I have a very supportive employer who gave me the option to take one year off, and that is exactly what I did," she said.
She said it was stressful when her girls were younger and in daycare.
"As women, we are always the ones who want to do the most multitasking and take on the most. I found getting up in the morning, getting the kids out the door, trying to getting to work on time, trying to get home, trying to pick the kids up from daycare, trying to put a good healthy meal on the table, and trying to do everything else that life requires ... It was stressful. It made me feel, at the end of the day, that I wasn't able to do both things to my best. I was being a mom half the time, I was working half the time."
It's hard watching my husband go to work everyday ... His career has taken off, and mine is still exactly where I left it.- Zarinah Ivany
Ivany said she loves the time spent with her daughters and getting them ready to go to school, so that she can soon refocus on her career.
"It's hard watching my husband go to work everyday. We went to university at the same time, we both went to school at the same time. His career has taken off, and mine is still exactly where I left it," she said.
"It has been hard to watch my career stall after working so hard to get there."