Yesterday I was astounded by the cost of child care in our area.  I accidently discovered that a local daycare charges $1200 per month for infant care.  $1200 per month!  What could possibly persuade a mother to pay this amount for childcare instead of caring for her children herself?

Lies that we hear from the world around us, such as…

Your child needs x, y, and z which cannot be bought unless you work.

Your child will lag behind other children from lack of supposed enrichment that current centers offer.

Your education will simply go to waste if you do not work outside of the home.

Your child needs to learn independence from you, and the time to start is now.

These lies go on, and on, and on…

Dear mother, what your child needs is you.  This time that you have with your children is fleeting.  The childcare center that I’m speaking of advertises that the parents will not miss a thing since they take notes of what your children do throughout the day.  Notes do not take the place of experience.  Seeing your child’s bubbly laughter throughout the day. Perhaps first smiles to first steps.  No dear mother, notes do not suffice.

What are we to do in this culture that encourages a two family income to the point of ridicule if only one parent works?  I know well that even family members can insinuate that your children would be better off with more things instead of more time with you.

We need to run to the Word of God.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.  Isaiah 55:8

God’s thoughts are NOT like the world’s.  If we find our thoughts drifting towards the world’s thoughts, we should run in the opposite direction!  God innately created mother’s to care for their own children’s needs.  To be sensitive to their cries, to really be in sync with their thoughts and fears.  A caregiver who is not a mother can not duplicate this.  God built in a natural way for mother’s to remain with their infants day and night, which is breastfeeding.  In our culture today, breastfeeding is something that is not mandatory in feeding infants.  This has “freed” mothers to leave their babies to do as they please, and babies are silently suffering, never really forming the natural attachment to their mothers that will help them thrive.  If they do become attached to their mother, they suffer silently whenever she is absent.  Dear mothers, this is not God’s plan.

Please be encouraged.  We serve a great God, who has overcame the world!

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.  John 16:33

He who has overcame the world will give you peace, even if you experience financial struggles while staying home with your sweet babies.  Take heart, that He that holds the whole world will hold you and your little ones too.  He would not have called you to be their mother if you were not equipped to fulfill that calling every day, every hour and every moment.

~Nicole