Yes! Should have bought a house with a pool!!!

Not at all. I am so glad I married the right person - this time has been so stressful, but there is no one I'd rather be "stuck" with than my DH and kids, and no place makes me happier than our home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Upon COVID-induced reflection, I remain SO happy I did not marry and have kids.

What are you doing on DCUM then?

The same thing you are- reading about topics that interest me. In my case, it's usually pets, real estate, finance, health.

She's a DC Urban Pet Mom. Happy Mother's day!

Thank you, but I consider my dog's birth mother to be her real mother, and she's a dog so presumably she doesn't read English.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Upon COVID-induced reflection, I remain SO happy I did not marry and have kids.

What are you doing on DCUM then?

The same thing you are- reading about topics that interest me. In my case, it's usually pets, real estate, finance, health.

She's a DC Urban Pet Mom. Happy Mother's day!

We need to expand our options beyond the US. Actively learning DH’s native language. Learning skills for a new career. Trying to position us for a trans-Atlantic move in five years. People getting shot in a McDonald’s for doing their job is ridiculous. I hope to raise my kids away from gun culture and broken political system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Upon COVID-induced reflection, I remain SO happy I did not marry and have kids.

What are you doing on DCUM then?

The same thing you are- reading about topics that interest me. In my case, it's usually pets, real estate, finance, health.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Should I have left my job a year ago to go on a career break? Was making $400k a year but was completely, totally burned out.

Had hoped to come back into the market over the summer.
Afraid I will never be able to get back to that professional level (either in terms of earnings and/or seniority) given the way economy is looking right now. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

Moving back to NYC may also not be on the cards again for a while, if ever.

I hope you're feeling better / recovered - and that you saved $$ from when you were working with such a decent income!! This too shall pass.

Thank you - indeed I have a better handle on things compared to a year ago (and yes, saved significant chunk of change over prior 4-5 years). Understood what went wrong, why it went wrong, what I needed to do to "fix" things, and now giving thought to what I do next. To be honest, I don't want to make much of a change career-wise, but now will have much better boundaries between personal and work lives. This crisis has helped to focus on what is truly most important in life and how lucky I am.

The observation to decouple personal and work lives is an important one. Definitely feeling a need for this, after weeks and weeks of working at home where everything has become one gigantic, stressful blur.

I was contemplating a commuter marriage for career advancement. Thinking now that that is not happening.

Yup, we realized that the ties keeping us here are not nearly as deep as we assumed. Activities, coaches, friends, jobs that we thought we’d never want to leave aren’t really missed much at all. School district has a good reputation but it’s a sham so now we’re paying for private in the fall. We’re tired of shlepping the kids all over the place all weekend. We were planning to stay through the end of kids’ far off high school years but if I lose my job next year due to the airline industry going down the tubes, I’d much rather find a new one in a less dense, less expensive area. We’ve always dreamed of somewhere in the Plains/Upper Midwest. More sky, fewer people.

Anonymous wrote:Kind of up in the air right now.

I left active duty and became a airline pilot about 4 years ago, 98% chance I am furloughed October 1st. My plan is to go back on active duty for a few years with the hopes of getting a active duty retirement and then head back to the airline with improved seniority and a military pension.

However who the F knows what the airlines will look like in a few years.

Luckily my wife is a CRNA and we live cheap.

Worst case I end up as a reservist / stay at home dad for a few years, maybe end up teaching high school.

Active duty worst case is unfortunately worse than that. Thank you for your service.

Kind of up in the air right now.

I left active duty and became a airline pilot about 4 years ago, 98% chance I am furloughed October 1st. My plan is to go back on active duty for a few years with the hopes of getting a active duty retirement and then head back to the airline with improved seniority and a military pension.

However who the F knows what the airlines will look like in a few years.

Luckily my wife is a CRNA and we live cheap.

Worst case I end up as a reservist / stay at home dad for a few years, maybe end up teaching high school.

The only thing that’s changed for me is that I want to leave my paper-pushing job in operations and become a teacher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Should I have left my job a year ago to go on a career break? Was making $400k a year but was completely, totally burned out.

Had hoped to come back into the market over the summer.
Afraid I will never be able to get back to that professional level (either in terms of earnings and/or seniority) given the way economy is looking right now. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

Moving back to NYC may also not be on the cards again for a while, if ever.

I hope you're feeling better / recovered - and that you saved $$ from when you were working with such a decent income!! This too shall pass.

Thank you - indeed I have a better handle on things compared to a year ago (and yes, saved significant chunk of change over prior 4-5 years). Understood what went wrong, why it went wrong, what I needed to do to "fix" things, and now giving thought to what I do next. To be honest, I don't want to make much of a change career-wise, but now will have much better boundaries between personal and work lives. This crisis has helped to focus on what is truly most important in life and how lucky I am.

Realized I’m a much happier and less stressed person when I’m not commuting downtown. Realized I like the suburbs. But I sort of knew this all before, just didn’t know what to do about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I want to stay home with my kids, possibly homeschooling the oldest and learn to live off one income. This pandemic has taught me that life isn't meant to be lived rushing around. And that much of our society is toxic anyway.

To reference another thread, I want to be cheerfully mediocre. LOL

Me too pp.

You should check out Kate Singh books on Kindle. She’s not a great writer and her books are repetitive but they are a dollar each and are total comfort reading. Like talking to a hippie mom friend in California.