Can you shift your work hours, like 630-3? Home for long afternoons, time to visit parents before early bird dinner.

So OP. Imagine on a given day you can spend all day with your kid (it’s summer), you visit aging mom, and spend the afternoon at the park.

Now add the fact, that this is your life for next 15 years b/c you have much less money, so camps, vacations, and recreation are curtailed.

If it seems like a good trade you have your answer.

You’re a 9-5 government lawyer?! What an I missing? You’re acting like you’re an associate billing 80 hrs/wk or a partner chasing business all over the country or in house counsel on call 24-7 for your business teams?!

If you can swing it financially, and if you have confidence in yourself, I would take off 2-plus years. I think you'd be glad you did. I am just a few years older than you and always wish I could have had just a few years to dedicate to my kids. But I feel like I never had the confidence in myself, even though I have a degree from a top 5 law school.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the clarification. I certainly consider teaching a real career and a critically important one that’s vastly underappreciated. So I think you and I are probably on very different pages.

Sorry, yes teaching is a real career (my mom was a teacher). But it is structured to allow big breaks b/c of dominance of women in the field.

Not sure what is being lost in translation here, but understand there are huge ramifications to quitting at your age.