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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I telework 3 days a week with a MS kid and a HS kid.  DH teleworks the days I don't. I start early, and am usually done by 4 (MS DD gets home at 2:45). When she stays after school two days a week, it is 3-4 minutes away, so she can text when she is done and I pick up one day, and my carpool buddy picks up the second day when I am not home. I can also take her to early evening activities two days a week, and DH does the carpool on the third.

My HS kid is at TJ and at least 45 minutes away, so I am done by the time his bus is at the depot. I arrange a lot of carpools with other moms, especially for the TJ kid (and TJ is near my office, so I can be the one to do carpool pickup for extracurriculars the two days I go in, and other members of the carpool get other fpdays.

DH is in the house and can sneak out for pickups the days I am not there.

It is pretty close to a perfect setup.  DD gets home and comes into my office and talks to me for a few minutes about her day, and what needs to be done for homework. She is very self disciplined, makes a snack and does he homework. I'm finishing up work about the time she is done with her homework, and many nights we head out to a music lesson or her team activity between 5-6. She's 13, and used to do homework in my home office while I worked. But now wants her own space in her room, at her desk. Even if i wasn't teleworking, she would not be hanging with me.

But, there is nearly always a parent in the house after school, which is important to me.

That said-- golden handcuffs. Right now, I am not applying for lateral jobs or promotions with less telework time. I feel like I should stay where I am for 2 years, until DS is an experienced driver I can trust to pick up his sister, and DD is through her freshman year of high school. [/quote]

That sounds like a great set up![/quote]

It is. The downside is that I am not pursuing promotional opportunities, because I would have less flexibility in terms of work hours and probably fewer telework days. I tell myself, and believe, that the time I have left with my kids is brief, and it is more important to parent them than get ahead at work. Also, I had kids young, si I'm in my early 40s, and have about 20 years until I retire. And, I'm a Fed, so this makes it more doable.

But PP is right-- with kids in 8th and 10th, we need my salary less to pay the mortgage and it food, and more because we are putting almost $3000 a month(more than half my take home pay) in 529s.  We are doing VA prepaid for each kid, plus saving enough for R&B for one year for each kid--  since they will overlap by 2 years.  That way, we are only paying R&B for one kid for each year they are in college. We are also trying to save a second year of R&B for D.C. 1, so the money is there to pay the first year up front.

I will say, and I am not incredibly proud of this, that I had significant health problems when the kids were younger, and did not work for several years. Money was tight, so we did not start college funds until middle school.  So we are playing catchup now.

[/quote]

We have a very similar arrangement with DH and I both doing some telework so there is usually a parent home in the afternoon about 4x a week.  We could live comfortably on DH's salary, and did when the kids were babies/preschoolers, but now my salary mainly goes to accelerating retirement and college savings.  I could make more if I moved to a different firm (I'm at an in-house position and consulting firm jobs pay significantly more) but that would come with longer hours, less flexibility, and regular travel.  So, I'm happy with $125K and completely flexible, very low travel job.  I'm very happy with the balance we have and that we're now in a good financial position for college.[/quote]

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