I can't tell you what to do in your situation, but I'll tell you what *I* recently did. I worked FT for the first 10 years of our marriage, through the births of both kids. When we had DS we used a home daycare, then a center. When DD was born we had a nanny for a year and now we use a private school that has a daycare center near our home.
6 months ago I was offered a job that allows me to work from home 4 days a week for about the same salary that I was then making. We debated it for a while, knowing there would be fewer raises down the road than I would have gotten from my then current employer. In the end, the flexibility won out and I took the job. My kids are still in daycare because I am frequently on job sites and visiting clients, but we have a TON more flexibility in our schedule now. The laundry gets started while I'm on conference calls. Dinner goes in the crockpot in the morning or in the oven before I pick up the kids. We have Fridays off now to play.
I know a lot of people say that they plan to go back to work FT when their kids are in school, but frankly as DS is starting kindergarten, I am finding it even more important to have a flexible schedule. He actually needs me MORE now than he did when he was younger.
Honestly, my old job was better for me socially and emotionally on a lot of levels, because I find working at home to be very isolating. It's definitely been better for my kids, though. I understand the desire to be more financially stable, and we were lucky it wasn't too big of a trade-off for us to have me change jobs. Sometimes I feel guilty knowing that I *could* work the extra day (and my boss would pay me for it willingly) but every time I spend the extra day with my kids I remember how worth it the sacrifice is for us.
Daniele
mama to
dd1 watching over her brothers and sister from Heaven
ds1 13 years old
dd2 10 years old
ds2 6 years old
Placenta Increta/c-hyst survivor