How Long?

[Monday 2 Friday Mama]

Hi DarthLaurie - I love your handle by the way - wish I had thought of it. =) I've been doing home daycare now for almost 3 years. I "think" about returning to the world of complete sentences, cubicles and adults all the time. LOL Unfortunately, I am a generalist. I have two degree's and a graduate degree in Human Resources. A position in my field would probably pay me between 35,000 and 40,000 dollars a year. If I had to take a generalized, office admin kind of position I'd make even less - maybe 30,000 dollars a year. That's not a lot of money. While I wouldn't need to pay childcare dues for all of my kids, my youngest two (ages 10 and 5) would need childcare - to the tune of (approximately) a thousand dollars a month. For me, the decision to run my own daycare was a financial one. I make better money doing this than I would if I worked outside of my home. Even allowing for a certain amount of economic uncertainty (i.e. maybe I don't have a full crew of kids for all 12 months of the year) As long as I have four daycare kids I can make 45,000 annually. As I mentioned in another post, there are all sorts of other expenses associated with working outside the home (lunches/clothing/parking/transportation/office "donations" i.e. baby shower, co-worker's charity run, birthday lunches for co-workers) Frequently these little "nibbles" really eat away at what we bring home. =( While it's true that I don't have the other economic perks of a traditional job (i.e. pension plan, medical/dental benefits etc.) my husband has those through his job so we're covered. And as far as pension plans go, it seems like most employers are getting out of that racket anyways. Besides, I'd rather decide my own financial future - the whole Nortel thing spooked me. =)