We are centrally located, and have folks from all over the state stationed here.
The folks from the far corners of GA (and it's the largest state east of the Mississippi - longest commute to Atlanta is about 6 hours) generally rent an efficiency apartment in town (Atlanta rentals are way overbuilt and very cheap), and set up a long-weekend schedule. If you telecommute two days a week, you have Thurs-Sun (or Fri-Mon) at home and Mon-Wed (or Tues-Fri)at work. Most folks work long hours at the office to compensate.
Just an example of thinking outside the box. And before you say "his employer won't allow that!" -- our employer didn't used to allow that. Now it does. A bunch of folks got together and sold the idea to management.
It's my experience that most folks whine without moving heaven and earth to DO something (and sometimes you need to move heaven and earth). The first thing I would explore with 5 or 6 kids is teaching at the parochial school in exchange for reduced or no tuition. A mom with that many kids can manage a classroom on her head. Forget the bennys - have the husband pick those up. School gets a free teacher, the kids get an education. I'd do my best to sell that one to the bishop, democrat or not!
Telecommuting is very popular in the Washington area. As are 4/5 day work weeks - work 9 hours per day, get to take Friday off every other week. A few folks do 4 10-hr days per week, but many employers don't like missing one day per week of professional staff. As an employer, I wouldn't go for it - it would make it very difficult to get all our work covered - which by necessity happens over the course of five days each week - without hiring more staff.
But most folks still have to go to the office most days most weeks.
“The first thing I would explore with 5 or 6 kids is teaching at the parochial school in exchange for reduced or no tuition.”
Catholic school teachers do receive reduced tuition here. But not everyone can be a teacher. Not saying they can't do it. But in a school of 300 kids, they don't need 50 - 75 teachers. And the schools can't hire all parents of their students.
Even if they could, though, my son's high school has a faculty of about 60, but has 1,000 students representing in the range of about 800 families.
I can assure that tuition represents a burden for more than 15% of those families.
“It's my experience that most folks whine without moving heaven and earth to DO something (and sometimes you need to move heaven and earth).”
Well, I've seen enough folks make enough effort that I'm not so willing to assume that most are in some way derelict. Remember, too, not everyone has the same amount of: intelligence; courage; heart; will; strength; energy.
Some folks are blessed with an overabundance of all of these. Most aren't.
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