How Old Should My Baby Be Before I Return To Work?

“The aged women likewise, …that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be be discreet, chast, keepers at home…” Titus 2:3-5 KJV

Many mothers are asking the above question as though it is a settled fact that they belong back in the work force -just as soon as they can possibly get there. Most children in America are being raised by strangers and substitute parents –baby sitters, day care workers, schoolteachers and television, all are raising our children – but these will never be a substitute for Mother.

Mother – have you ever considered the fact that it is God’s will for you is to be at home with your child during the early formative years? If you are gone during these early years someone else will cuddle your baby. Someone else will have the joy of seeing your child take his first step. Someone else will have the joy of hearing something that sounds like “Mamma.” Someone else will cool the feverish brow of your baby when he is sick. Someone else will hold him close and read stories to him. Someone else will model her values for your child.

One-half of everything one learns, one learns before age two. One half of the remaining knowledge is learned before five years of age. Why not be part of the most important years in your child’s life?

I well remember a Norman Rockwell painting on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. It was of a mother in a messy kitchen holding a crying baby; dreaming of sitting at a desk in a nice office. In the dream, she was dressed so nicely and her hair was so perfect. The other part of the painting showed her actually sitting at this desk – only now she is dreaming of being in her neat kitchen holding a happy baby. This is the dilemma thousands of mothers are finding themselves in today.

Every child is born with a need just as strong as the need for food and being kept dry. This need is known as ‘bonding’ or ‘attachment’. Bonding takes place during the first eighteen months of life. The baby cries and ‘mother’ satisfies the need. Through this process the baby learns to trust her to meet all his needs.

“But you don’t understand, Brother Reynolds, I need to work. We need the money.”

First, be honest with God and yourself. Is it for “needs” or is it for your “wants?” In America, we have the two mixed up many times. God has promised to supply your “needs.”

Mothers, do not buy into this world’s value system. Never hang your head and say, “I am just a housewife.” Rather say, proudly and assertively, “I am a Homemaker! I mold lives for Eternity!”

“She who rocks the cradle rules the nation.”