I thought about it. In fact, at the beginning of September, my full time spots all cleared out at the same time. (I had 3 in one family, that left!) So I was just doing B/A care. It was admittedly nice to have my day free, that's for sure. However, unless I took in a lot of kids, it wouldn't work for me. Not enough pay, I have 2 of my own that are school age so it takes up "spots", and the bottom line is that I have less patience for dealing with the troubles that school age kids have (maybe it's just the batch of kids I ended up with, lol). I would rather work with toddlers, and have sharing issues, etc.
I hear what you say about your own kids needing to feel more important. I think that is a fine line for us daycare providers. So far I think our own kids are doing okay, but if they ever started to "suffer", then I would absolutely re-evaluate. At the same time, I keep reminding them that it's not easy for the daycare kids all the time, either. You don't think they would rather be at their own home with their own toys and their own parents?? You bet they would!! So it's a give and take around here.
I would totally look into part time, if you think that might work for your budget. I only have 2 full timers, one in school for mornings. I have about 5 or 6 part time, that rotate as per schedules need. It's nice on some days to have less kids, a little bit of a break even. And the money works out to be about the same, because part timers actually pay more on a daily basis.