Reply to any SAHMs here? looking for perspective from the 50's set!

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[quote=Anonymous]I am early 40s and thinking about SAH after working my entire adult life.  My oldest is entering middle school next year and I think I just want to be "around" more.  I also have younger ones (including a baby) and I feel frazzled juggling everything, even though I work part-time.  The after-work "taxi service" for kids' activities is exhausting - often I leave work at 4:00 knowing I will be running people to and fro for the next couple of hours and probably won't get to sit down at home until 8:00 if I'm lucky.  Staying home doesn't solve that, but at least it would make for a more relaxing day, and the evenings might not feel like such a fire drill all the time if I had time to regroup during the day.  So, I know life at home will keep me very busy, at least for the next few years, if I choose to leave my job.

But my question is: if you have SAH for a number of years, how is it once you are in your mid-50s?  I'm both excited and really apprehensive about the possibility of staying home.  Part of me is worried that after a few years, I will really become bored (and boring!) by the time my youngest is in elementary school all day every day.  Also, I'm an older mom this time around, so most of my friends have children the same age as my older ones, but nobody has babies, and I think most of my friends will be at a completely different stage in life in a few years when our kids are all teens, and I'll still be toting around a 4-yr old with me.  I keep telling my (very supportive) husband - "yeah, not working sounds great, but think about doing it for another 40-50 years!"  I guess the crux of my question is simply how do you feel in midlife after years out of the paid workforce?

I know going back to work later is always an option, but that I'm unlikely to go back in my field, as it is pretty specialized and somewhat fast-paced, and I know myself well enough to know that I won't keep up with it once I stop working.  I also am fairly well-paid now, so I know that I'm be unlikely to take a job several years down the road if it pays significantly less (unless I really had to, but that doesn't seem likely since we are savers/planners and we think we have the financial side of this decision pretty well covered by savings, investments, insurance).  I also worry that if I do try to go back, who is going to want to hire a 50-something with a 10-year resume gap?  Probably no one.  And I'll be almost 60 by the time I am an empty-nester; not the ideal time to jump back into the job market.  So in a way I view this as a "permanent" decision even though I know it isn't that way for most people.

Interested to hear from 50-somethings who have been home for ~10 years and how the experience has been, what your plans for the future are, etc.    :D
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