The website of Parents Magazine has a nifty little stay-at-home calculator. You can use it to calculate your total expenses, including those expenses you have due to you or your partner working. After totaling those up, you can decide if it worth it for you to stay at home. If you can, I highly recommend that you do so.
I personally feel that children definitely benefit from having at least one parent with them full time for at least the first year of life. However, I am logical enough to realize that in many cases, this is not possible. Hell, I worked 32 – 38 hours per week from the time Alyssa was seven weeks old until she was eighteen months old. I hated leaving her, but I knew she was in capable hands – at my mother’s house, with the company of my brothers and often my grandfather – and we needed the money. Besides, with me working five days a week and Dan working five days a week, there were at least two days a week she would have one, if not both of us, with her at home. Some weeks we would be lucky to have different days off, so Alyssa would spend four days of those weeks at home and in the company of one of us.
I also won’t deny that I feel especially lucky and feel that Ryan is especially lucky to have had me with him all of the time, from day one. I know that Alyssa has really blossomed with me being at home with her all of the time since she was eighteen months old.
But, I also will not deny that there are days I go stir crazy! With the exception of the little money I made for the hours I put (especially compared to how much I am making now, working at home), I sometimes miss being out in the work force, even if the work force is nothing more than guest services at Target, or answering phones and calling companies at an alarm system monitoring company. But overall, I wouldn’t give up being at home all of the time. It’s great and convenient to work at home, and it’s nice to be with the kids all of the time, and to be able to keep after housework and cooking and laundry and general organizing and de-cluttering without trying to fit it all around full time work schedules.
My name is Jenn, and I'm 27 years old. I'm happily married to my best friend and soulmate, Daniel. Together we have a six year old daughter named 
Name: Alyssa
Name: Ryan
I agree that spending time with your children is good for them, but there’s such a thing as too much. I’m dealing with issues now where Corey is lacking some social skills and Michael is a bit less mature than the other kids – because they spent all their time at home with me.
Getting them out of the house and out of your care for at least half a day or every other day is definitely important for their growth.