The great creation debate

I have just been listening to a phone in show about the commons vote later to decide whether to allow the creation of babies using DNA from three people. A lot of the people calling in or emailing seemed to have bypassed the issue at hand and were calling on a ban for IVF altogether. Arguments for this seemed to be centred on 'natural selection' or that there are too many unwanted children in this world, people who can't have babies should adopt rather than trying to create their own.
  I have to admit that this was partly my opinion before I became unable to have children myself. I am not in the least bit religious but thought that infertility happened 'for a reason' and that you shouldn't mess around with what nature intended. Even when my own infertility started to become an issue, I still thought I would adopt rather that go through such an unnatural process.
  Of course this opinion changed and when I look at my beautiful daughter who was conceived not on a romantic break but in a lab, it is hard to see anything but an amazing child, with how she was created being completely irrelevant. Of course we will tell her one day when she is old enough to understand and I hope that it makes her feel very special that she was wanted to much rather than strange in any way. 
  Which brings me to my conclusion that really it is all about personal choice and that if things are possible such as ensuring that children are not born with incurable diseases then surely this should be made available and it should be up to individuals to make that choice. I for one am over the moon that the issue has moved on so far that IVF is almost without stigma.  

Returning to the outside world...

For the last nine months I have been wrapped up in the cocoon of maternity leave where my days have revolved around playgroups and cake. Lunches have consisted of hurriedly eating leftovers with one fork while spoon feeding a baby and my only conversations have been around boobs, crawling, weaning and poo. This is a world that I have enjoyed greatly and would happily continue to inhabit if it wasn't for the empty wallet and candyfloss brain.
It is therefore time to think about a return to normality. Thankfully I am no corporate wage slave so my journey back is a little easier than most. Firstly I have applied to return to my job with a national charity for two days a week. Secondly I have signed up to become a Digital Mum in the hopes that I will be able to work flexibly from home around the needs of my daughter. The idea of Digital Mums is to harness the talent and potential of mums and train them to be social media managers. As I seem to spend a huge amount of my life using social media (when I'm not on Ebay that is!) it seems to make perfect sense to try and turn it into a career.
I was at one stage considering becoming a full time stay at home mum. As mentioned before I have loved every part of my maternity leave and think that looking after Stella is the best job in the world. However there have been a few things that have made me change my mind in the last month or so. The first is finances, I have always been very independent and although I am lucky enough to have a husband that earns a decent wage, the idea of having to ask him for money each month sent a shiver down my spine. After childcare I won't be earning a lot with my part time job but its enough to make me feel less like a kept woman.
The fact that I haven't met anyone else in my mum's network who is planning on becoming a full time mum also put me off, already my social circle is diminishing as mum friends return to work. I could just picture myself as the one mum in the corner with a child of Stella's age, possibly becoming the maternal figure with lots of new mums but not having anyone to share milestones with. Lastly it was the sheer monotony of housework that has driven me to retrain/ return to work. The reality of being a stay at home mum means that I am actually a traditional housewife, spending most of my day cooking and cleaning. At least if I am out of the house or earning money then this can be shared, possibly even with a paid cleaner.
I am hoping that I will be able to retain a really healthy work/ life balance and that my working will mean that I enjoy parenting even more. Working part time or from home will also hopefully enable me to witness all the firsts. Stella is already crawling but I hope to be around for her first steps and words. I realise I am a lot luckier than most being in a situation where I have the choices that I do and hope to carry on being a mum first and foremost.