When my first son was born, I stayed home for as long as I could - about a year, and I remember having lots of discussion about these kinds of things at my local mother's group. Passions were hot, some people were so SURE about their decisions. Others were terribly anxious that they were doing that wrong thing. That was 18 years ago. A lot has gone on in my life and the lives of all my friends from that group, and here is what we realized over coffee recently.
This is not a decision you make once. It's something that depends on the individual child, the individual school. Your job, your husband's job or lack thereof, the distances involved, the health of your parents, the cost of things, and THEN just when you FINALLY get it sorted out, something changes.
And you know what ? Mostly it's all fine.
