The New Stay-at-Home Mom

The person behind the guide

About The New Stay-at-Home Mom

Erin Kowalski's desk with a budget worksheet, calculator and a half-packed office box

I'm Erin Kowalski — former marketing manager, current stay-at-home mom of two in Raleigh, North Carolina. Eighteen months ago I walked out of an office I mostly liked, away from a paycheck I definitely liked, because my husband and I ran the numbers three times and decided the next few years belonged at home. I rewrote my resignation letter twice and cried in the parking lot anyway. Both things can be true.

This site is the field guide I couldn't find that year. When I searched "should I be a stay-at-home mom," the internet handed me sermons, forum threads from 2011, and beautiful essays that never once mentioned health insurance. Nobody would just tell me how to do it — how to test the budget before quitting, what to say to my boss, what the first Monday at home actually feels like, and how to keep a door open in case future-me wants back in.

So the guide is organized the way the journey actually runs, in five chapters: Deciding (honest frameworks, no pressure either way), One-Income Prep (the pre-quit money math), Making the Leap (resigning gracefully), Settling In (the first 90 days), and Back to Work, Someday (resume gaps, LinkedIn, and re-entry on your terms). Wherever you are on the path, start there.

What you won't find here: mommy-war content, martyrdom, or anyone telling you what the right answer is. Staying home is a good path. Staying at work is a good path. My job is to make sure that whichever one you pick, you pick it with a spreadsheet, a plan, and your eyes open. I still update my someday-résumé file every quarter — not because I regret the leap, but because options are part of the plan.

If you're brand new, start with the whole path in one post, or jump straight to the money math if that's the part keeping you up at night. I'm glad you're here.

A note on affiliate links: some posts contain affiliate links — if you buy through one, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend things I'd tell my own sister to buy.