Just an anecdote: I walked away from a “career path” to go home and raise my babies when they were 2 & 3 years old. I stayed there until they were in college.
For the last 6 years, I have had a corporate job making GREAT money.
I don’t regret one minute that I was at home. I regret that I missed so much of those early, early years.
I quit working as a Software Engineer when my first was a baby. I don’t regret it one instance. I worked for 10 years before I had kids. I have no desire to go back to that job.
I’m trying to figure out what I can do now. I have time to work, but only part-time. I want to be home in the summers and after school. I want it to be that way until my kids are in college.
One thing I’m doing with my daughters is encouraging them to look at jobs that they can do part-time or that don’t impact family life as much: teaching, nursing and other medical professions like physical therapy , accounting.
I would not encourage them to go into engineering. It’s just not a good career to have with kids. My parents pushed me into it because I was smart. However, they didn’t think about what I would do when I had kids.
I want my daughters to be able to have a career and take care of things if they have to, but also be able to be home with their children.
I also have no problem with dads being stay-at-home dads. My brother was one while his wife became an executive at her company. He died young (48) from cancer, and him being an at home dad worked for their family.
“For the last 6 years, I have had a corporate job making GREAT money.”
Yoe have exposed one of favorite canards of the feminists, to wit: That after twenty years of homemaking you will be unemployable and have a head full of mush, and be utterly at the mercy of your husband and the world.
“For the last 6 years, I have had a corporate job making GREAT money.
I don’t regret one minute that I was at home. I regret that I missed so much of those early, early years.”
BUMP!
Just an anecdote: I walked away from a “career path” to go home and raise my babies when they were 2 & 3 years old
A relative of ours did the same thing. Somewhat by accident she subsequently created a business that grew like topsy while she was raising her kids and she always was able to structure her hours around her kids. Her decision to ‘walk away from’ what seemed like a career resulted in a much better financial reward as well as many great memories of time with her kids when they were small.
I didn’t work for 18 years and then went back there as a floater. I was hired full time a while later and worked there 28 years. I was able to be at home with my three sons until the youngest was 12. I’m glad I could do that.