Reply to Considering leaving a good job ($120K) in mid-thirties to be a SAHM

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[quote=Anonymous]
I re-framed my term of unemployment. I left a well-paying job for good reasons and have no regrets about that. It did take a very long time to find work. Right now, I am anticipating a July 1st start date, meaning that I will have been out of work for two years. During this time, I've invested seriously in my children and household. It has been a true gift. At first, I was too mired down in the frustration of finding myself seemingly unemployable. At the one year mark, a mentor challenged me to re-frame my situation. I was a SAHM, working on my writing. She was just offering a way to spin, but she hit on the truth of my circumstance. That is exactly what I had been doing. The job I am now expecting is a great fit for my family, now that I've been able to thoroughly establish systems at home and bring my children to a stronger place, academically, socio-emotionally, and developmentally. There's a lot of flexibility. The pay is no great, certainly not by DCUM standards, but it will allow me to more than meet our basic needs and max out savings. We learned to prioritize our expenses while I was out of work and developed a solid means of passive income.

I'm going back to work because I need to feed the part of me that reflects my professional excellence. I crave the intellectual environment and collegial atmosphere. I want to socialize with grown ups again. :)

Taking time off from work to dedicate yourself to parenting is a desirable luxury. Don't underestimate your own needs when taking this step. You don't want to view this as a sacrifice, and that's exactly what you'll face after awhile.

PPs have suggested living on one income for a minimum of six months to test out the viability re finances. I would also use that time to quite actively seek out part-time work. Contract work can be intrusive. You get used to a schedule, work hard to make sure it takes hold, then a contract assignment comes in an you have to scuttle all your efforts to make room for a large responsibility. Part-time work from the start is just a routine part of your family life; it's something to build around and provides consistency which is the key to success with your children.

I've gained a lot from this experience. I would encourage you to take your own needs seriously. Right now, time off from work may seem like great fun, but it will get lonely out here. It is VERY easy to fall away from the professional network you take for granted right now. I'd use these next six months to intensify my involvement in professional associations, join meet ups, look up useful conferences coming up in the next year. If I had held onto any of these, I wouldn't have had those moments of embarrassment, when I felt I'd given too much of myself away and saw others advancing while I had to live by a different metric.

Money is only one issue that you need to mull before making this decision. And, yes, ten years is far too long to go without having a meaningful connection to your professional world. Even though it's only been two years (three, if you consider my last job wasn't part of my career track, it was just a job), I have to start all over.

If you were part of my small circle of highly-accomplished, go-getting, Type-A friends, we'd be sitting at my dining room table going over an Excel spreadsheet and a built-out calendar to cover the next two years. We'd work to ensure your balance. The mommy part is what you're focusing on, maybe even the marital partner piece as well. You may be able to afford the transition financially, but you really need to focus on what it will cost you emotionally and professionally.

Are you prepared to take an internship in order to re-enter the workforce? Are you wiling to start off making half of what you currently do when you decide to go back to work? How about answering to people far junior in their experience?

I'm very lucky to have had a mentor who knew me well enough that she essentially created a position for me. Nothing on record would indicate my capacity to do the work assigned to this position. I have busy work (contract, part-time consulting) on my resume covering the last three years, which has made it very difficult to present my talents to potential employers.

The bright side is that I have no regrets about how I spent these last years, and that I now know what my new career track must look like in order to maintain what I've built. It's been humbling, so humbling, because I had a brilliant reputation. Strong mind, excellent worker, outstanding product. The measurables of the last three years in now way reflect what I once had.

Factor yourself into this equation as you move forward. I don't mean to neg on your vision. It's just so easy to build an idea around what you can provide without taking into account what you will need.

Think on that a bit more. Prioritize yourself when making you plans.[/quote]

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