I will try to make this as brief as possible. You ladies always give good advice so I thought I would ask for some! I am a teacher and spent all last year desperately wanting to be home with my son. I decide mid year to leave for a while and start a home day care. At the time I earned only slightly less than my husband. I put in my resignation, got a couple kids secured and things looked it would be ok for us. Well, my husband ended up taking a new job (with a pay cut and expensive health insurance) and I was unable to secure any more kids to stay with me. I left the school year apprehensive, but determined to not work full time again as long as my children were small.

Fast forward to a month and a half later. I still only have a couple kids lined up, despite my advertising, and my last paycheck from school is coming up. My husband and I looked at the bottom line numbers last night and realized that we will come up $200 short every month. That is also not putting anything for savings and having nothing extra even for oil changes, haircuts etc. Once his insurance kicks in we are screwed. We came to the conclusion that I need to go back to work in the fall. I will get a big raise this year (putting me way ahead my husbands income) and we can stay on my insurance.

I have to admit, we are heartbroken over this. We were really looking forward to me being with our child all day. We just had to conclude that he doesn't have the income for me to take on something instable as my own business. What do you guys think? I would LOVE to work part-time, but that is hard to come by in teaching. Any ideas? Even if is not an idea as to how to stay home, but maybe how to make peace with being a working mom.

Have you ever thought about Foster care? You would be able to stay home with your child , help other children and get paid..

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http://mommysavers.com/boards/journa...wjournal&j=110


If you tell your secrets to the wind... Don't be mad if it tell's the trees.

I am so sorry. I have had ups and downs with child care currently still on the upswing but come fall I would love to secure one more. Honestly I never got anywhere advertising. I found 1 I watched from 6 weeks and is now 4 and will be starting a full time prek in the fall. Does anyone you know need care or know someone that does? The other 2 I watch full time I met on the playground at my 6 yr olds school. To supplement could you find an evening job or maybe tutoring? Again so sorry.

How about daycare and then perhaps private tutoring I know it is alot to be with other peoples kids all day but you can make up your own hours.

I have a friend who is a teacher, she went through the same thing. Her job had been filled and there were no other openings in any school within an hours drive....she saw an ad for a teacher at a cyber charter school and checked it out. It was a school in which the kids took classes from home online. The position required her to come to the office 1 day a month, she was able to do the remainder of her duties from home. The school paid for her internet connection, supplied her with a brand new iMac, a webcam and a combo printer fax scanner. They also paid for a telephone line. She was able to work from home for the same amount of money and less hours. She didn't have the commute, the after school duties, she did not have a classroom to maintain, and she took her breaks and days off whenever she wanted.

Ok I had the same thing happen when I made the choice not to go back to my job with great benifits. We just couldn't afford the increase in insurance costs. So pretty much I went in and talked over prices and numbers with the payrole gal at my DHs work. We decided to give it a go with me quiting and he happened to be due for a raise which was the exact amount of the increase in insurance. So if your DH hasn't asked or recieved a raise in a while maybe thats an option

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

Oh, dear, what a dilemma to have. Is there anything non-school related that you'd like to do? If there is only a need for a few hundred dollars a month, perhaps there is something else (very part-time) that you could look into??

This may seem like I'm joking, but Dave Ramsey told a story about a mom who took on a paper route. She got up very early, did her route, and was home before her dh and children were awake.

I would suggest thinking outside the box. You'll find the right thing for you and your current situation. It sounds like your heart would break if you "had" to go back to work fulltime. It really depends on what kind of community you live in, but there are probably opportunities out there.

Let us know what you find!

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If you need to get in touch with me, my email is teach1107910@yahoo.com.

I am a former teacher who now watches my friends kids, and they're teachers. I'm not sure where you are located, but can you ask at your school or at another local school, if there are other teachers who need childcare? Or, as one of my clients does, is a job-share an option for you? Is there another teacher you work with that would be interested in splitting your position with you? You and the other teacher could go to the principal and petition a new position... The other idea about tutoring is a good one, too. Again, I'm not sure of your dempgraphic area, but in some places, tutors, particularly teachers, make really good $$. Hope you can figure this out so that you're all happy.

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~Jenn~

Thank you for the ideas. I have definitly thought about tutoring. Again, the undependable factor. It wouldn't be money I could totally depend on. This just stinks because I feel stuck. I also very guilty for really holding a little resentment for my husband not making enough $$ for me to do this. Isn't that awful? I am trying hard to get that out of my head.

I am going to call my old principle and see if he knows anyone who would want to do job share. Dh and I talked about if nothing else, maybe the next year I can find part-time, or we will be in another place and I can spend more time at home with baby #2 (whenver that comes!) I guess he was right last night when he said we just didn't properly prepare for this. Years ago we could've stayed in our apt., not bought him a new car a couple years ago etc. We should've always been preparing for me to be a sahm. People who always live on one income before kids are SOOOO smart!

Hi. Have you thought about maybe getting a couple of houses to clean? You could take your child with you and make good money for only a couple of hours. I clean a house for someone on Saturday morning twice a month while my husband stays home with the kids. It works out well. I also make a little bit of money doing online surveys. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Luvabargain