stay-at-home parents, if you were given an offer for the job of your dreams today,?

If Cirque du Soleil would like to give me a call, I won't put them through to VM. I'd join a travelling show and my kids would come with me. Great fun. My husband could quit his job and come along...we'd be poor as fukc, but it'd be fun.

Alas...I don't foresee a call from them anytime soon.

If I got a call to come back and work in the same field I used to be in, I'd tell them to take their keyboards and cheap coffee and shove it. Actually...the coffee was pretty good, but still...

ETA* The only way I'd take a job before my kids were done with school is if my husband could stay home to do the homeschooling...unless it were a matter of affording the basics, I'd not want to have both of us working...it's just not what we had planned.

Working parent. I do not have the job of my dream but I would probably work regardless. I work to pay bills so no option to even stay home. Even if it were a choice to work or not I would still work because I cannot sit at home all day. I was ready to go back to work 2 weeks after my son was born. I'm just not a stay at home mom type. I've been working since I was 14 and I just wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have to get up and be somewhere.

No. I was offered a very good job over the summer - the kind of job I would love to have in a couple of years. I have an elementary ed degree, but don't ever really want to work full time and teaching jobs are very rarely part time (around here anyway). Well over the summer I was offered a 3 day a week teaching position working with students at risk in reading. It was $25/hour which is a lot in my rural area. I really wanted to take it....it is good money, good hours....it would have been nice to do something other than be home all day. But after thinking and thinking I said no. I knew if I took a part time position now I'd spend all my time home doing chores and laundry and wouldn't have the time I do now to spend with my girls.

today I couldn't. Currently i don't have a choice. however if i had a SO who could stay home with the kids when i was called to work, then yes definetly.

that dream job would be a midwife or a dula. I would love to help bring babies into the world. I think it would be so rewarding and its something i've wanted to do since i was young. maybe one day i'll get there.

first I'd need to get my son through his ABA, and wait until he is old enough to take care of himself, or there is someone around to take him at the drop of a hat (like an SO) because its not like babies work 9-5 hours!

I wouldnt. I already gave up the job of my dreams. I worked in a great family practice office for 7 years...3 of which I was the clinical supervisor. I loved that job! I love my kids more and couldnt imagine missing the first steps and all the funny things they do throughout the day just for a job. I can and will go back to work one day..but life it too short to miss out on enjoying my kids. Soon they will be in school and all too soon they will be grown..then I will have nothing to do but work. Work can wait...my kids being little cant.

I worked because I was a single mom. It was not an option, and as I mention, it was one of my only outlets to interact with other adults (before I had my daughter, most of my friends were gay men, so after I had her...).

If I had been offered a job where I could have stayed home and worked, I would have done that. I would still like to have that option. I just don't know how to get in to any of those fields (ie. transcriptionist, whatever).

To be fair, I have asked my daughter, and she liked day care and out of school care, and so I'm not dying from the guilt. I'd just really like those extra few hours a day.

I left the job of my dreams to stay home and work pt for the Man. I can always go back to the job, I figure, but I can't get back the time with the kid.

No, I wouldn't be able to take it right now. My whole paycheck would go to daycare for 3 out of 4 children, so it'd be a waste. If they were all in school, it'd be a different story. My dream job is becoming a midwife or doula, which I do plan on working on once they are all in school.

If the job of my dreams would allow me to be with my children after they arrived home from school, the ability of leave if they were sick, the freedom to attend school programs or field trips, and the chance to stay home with them on the holidays, I'd jump on it in a minute.

As much as I love staying at home with the kids, if I got an offer to work with drop dead good looking actors all day everyday, I'd totally take it.