If you have young kids now and are very happy with everyday life

[Anonymous]

changed to a still full-time but less demanding job. game changer. 2x monthly home cleaner. used non-work babysitters pretty liberally before age 5 (decided to cut down and start saving more money instead after that).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:34, 1 kid, divorced with a supportive and communicative co-parent. We have no local family on either side. DD attends a good before and aftercare program around her public school schedule, i work FT for the government with a reasonable salary for my lifestyle. Custody schedule of 55 allows me enough freetime on weeknights and every weekend to handle house stuff, shopping, and a social life.

I saw someone else post farther down asking about work flexibility and how that seems to make a lot of people's lives easier and happier (fact!), and wanted to add that I also am very very lucky to have a great boss who understands having young children, so if I need to leave early due to the school calling or (as recent issues showed) finding out her bus route is just cancelled for a week, she doesn't mind. My agency has also been very flexible on work hours during COVID to accommodate health concerns and school hours changing. My siblings in another state are teachers and don't have the flexibility I do, so my good work situation has also helped create a stable happy life for me at this time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very happy. 6 and 8 year old. Equal partner (or TBH my husband does more than me). We both are full time teleworking for now and the kids are in aftercare.

+1 for this. Kids are 5 & 7. My DH does more than me too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:changed to a still full-time but less demanding job. game changer. 2x monthly home cleaner. used non-work babysitters pretty liberally before age 5 (decided to cut down and start saving more money instead after that).

yep this is huge. i was SO stressed before we started adding babysitter nights/weekend afternoons to our regular schedule.

[Anonymous]

3 kids- two in elementary and one baby. I SAH abs DH is a mix of WFH and go into the office. But he can schedule the days he goes in based on my schedule and when I need help getting kids to activities and sports practices. He works a high stress but high pay job so we can outsource what we need, although we don’t have help other than cleaning people because I don’t want people in the house. Was life better before Covid? Of course. But I still recognize that I have it pretty good and try to make the most of it. I exercise daily in the morning, which is critical for my mental health, and DH does the morning/breakfast routine with the kids