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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I left teaching to stay at home as soon as my first child was born. I wish I could say it was a hard decision but it was not. DH makes enough to keep us in a decent suburban house, keep us debt-free, fund the kids’ 529 accounts, and our retirement well funded.  My youngest is now in 11th grade and I’m just working part time now for some vacation fun money.

I don’t want to turn this into the “raise your own children” thread but you just have to assess your own talents and where they are well utilized.  I was raised by my grandmother who was an incredible cook, gardener and seamstress. Now I couldn’t care less about garment sewing, but the rest of it rubbed off, so I’m like Martha Stewart with advanced degrees in education and childhood development. There was no way in hell I was outsourcing my child rearing.

Many of my friends don’t even know where their kitchen is, but make good money professionally, and that’s OK too.

Just play to your strengths, and make the decision as a married couple with your spouse, so you’re all on the same page.  It’s a life-long decision in terms of financial impact, so you have to do it as a couple. 
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Not to be mean but a teaching job is not what people would consider a big career.[/quote]

No worries.  I understand your point and certainly don't take it as mean, but I was moving up quickly into administration, and am not boasting to say that I'd have certainly made it into a fairly high administration position by now, with my aptitudes and education.  There were also a lot of tangential career options for which I'd have been well suited, such as curriculum development and/or going back into academia.

The point being, if I hadn't pulled the career ejection seat handle, I'd have easily have been in a salary range over the 95th percentile of US earners.  Combined with a spouse who is a few % higher than that, and it would have been a much more "luxurious" lifestyle.  But I also had the Martha Stewart thing going on, and decided to leverage that.  My upbringing, education and skill sets were sort of optimized for staying at home full time, so I went with it.

This is a cost/benefit analysis that my spouse I made in our late 20s, and I don't begrudge anyone who plays to their particular strengths.  You just have to realize that, once you go down that path for a few years, you can't roll back time.   Your kids will only be young once, and you will only once have the the youthful energy of your 20s and 30s to pour into a full-time career.

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NP and also respectfully — thinking you were going to make it to a big job and were on track to making it is not remotely the same as making it … and enduring it. I see people get promotions and/or rise to higher ranks and flame out fast all of the time. 
I’m in a big leadership job that actually in no way mirrors the sort of work, responsibility, and strategic survival skills needed in the individual contributor roles in my 20s and the senior level roles of my 30s that I held on the path to my current role. It’s like saying you know how you’ll do as a first-time parent because you had a lot of experience taking care of your siblings and were a camp counselor in high school. 
Landing a big job is hard and perhaps you would have, but keeping a big job and succeeding in a big job is something beyond all that. Again I say this respectfully, I am sure you are bright and talented. You just don’t actually know what you are talking about without significant first-hand experience here. 
Would love to hear from more people on this topic who had big jobs. [/quote]

Man you are really full of yourself.  [/quote]

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