Reply to Will I regret ending my career to stay home with ES age kids?

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "Will I regret ending my career to stay home with ES age kids?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Strongly considering leaving my job to stay home with my 6 and 10 year old kids. All post-Covid flexibility seems to be gone in both DH’s and my fields - he is back working long hours in the office 5 days a week and I can work from home 2X per week but find myself having to be in early or work late far too often on the days I am in the office. We feel like this is taking a toll on our kids - we are rarely around, recently have missed a ton of school events due to work conflicts/travel, DH and I are distracted and stressed 24/7 and trying to get dinner on the table or manage household chores is a nightmare (and we already outsource plenty). Having 2 FT working parents with very demanding jobs has just become too much.

For all the above and more, I am thinking about resigning but am very conflicted. I have spent the past 20+ years building my career and I genuinely enjoy working and challenging myself. I have looked for other, more flexible opportunities but there is truly nothing that is going to be strictly 9 to 5 and still pay anywhere close to what I make (open to a pay cut but not 50% less), and I don’t need to trade one demanding job for another.

My biggest hesitation is stepping back now when my kids are already in elementary and gone every day from 8:30-4/5pm between school and activities. Is this really the time to let it all go? I worry about what I will do when they are in high school and beyond, and it will be very challenging to get back into the corporate workforce as a 50yo woman. Additionally, losing my salary (over $400K) will mean we need to seriously adjust our lifestyle, and we can do it but that also comes at a cost.

Has anyone else been in my shoes and decided to leave? Was it the right decision or do you regret it?

Open to any and all advice![/quote]

If you have to ask an anonymous forum that generally leans more hostile toward SAHMs and frequently responds with thinly-disguised condescension such as “do what you want but I’d be sooooo bored!” to get validation for this choice, then I’d say yes, you’ll probably regret it.

I did not regret it and I really cherish the time I spent with my children at that age and younger. You can’t get it back.
But I’d imagine it would be miserable for
someone who was already questioning the career sacrifice.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics