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Work from home dad?

celiabwatsonceliabwatson
in Working Moms
So, I'm only just beginning my pregnancy but we're already thinking ahead to when baby comes. Here's the situation: I'm a teacher, love my job, get paid "well" (for a teacher) and have a great school where I'm very happy. My husband is a chemist who is currently working in a lab testing urine. He hates his job and doesn't get paid as much as I do. We don't want to day care if we can avoid it, and we don't have family in the area. Also, we looked into day care costs and really, half of my husband's salary would go to child care if we both kept working. So, our current thought is that he should quit his job (not yet, after my maternity leave is up) and stay home with the baby. He should then try to find something to do from home while baby is napping or that he can bring baby along while he does it. Does anyone have any brilliant ideas? He doesn't have to be FT at anything and doesn't have to be bringing in tons of money, but we can't survive on a teacher's salary alone. Thoughts?
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Re: Work from home dad?

  • AlisaSAlisaS member

    What are you doing in terms of saving for retirement, kid's schooling, e-fund, etc? 

    Can your husband find another job? What kind of skills does he have that he can use to find a job where he can work from home while providing full-time care to your child?

     

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  • Erin&RodErin&Rod
    We were in your same exact situation.  I teach, DH hated his finance job which had crappy benefits and didn't pay well and we didn't want to do daycare.  DS was born in Feb. I only had to go back to work for a couple of weeks after my maternity leave and was off for the summer.  DH worked part time at Home Depot (nights and weekends).  It worked out well for a year and half, but now we're struggling financially so DH is going to have a full time job and continue working part time and we're putting DS in daycare.  Sorry, I didn't really answer your question, but if you can swing it with him working a part time job, it can work.
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  • RoxyLynnRoxyLynn member

    imageceliabwatson:
    So, our current thought is that he should quit his job (not yet, after my maternity leave is up) and stay home with the baby. He should then try to find something to do from home while baby is napping or that he can bring baby along while he does it. Does anyone have any brilliant ideas? He doesn't have to be FT at anything and doesn't have to be bringing in tons of money, but we can't survive on a teacher's salary alone. Thoughts?

    Regardless of the gender of the stay-at-home parent, no one gets paid to take care of their kid.  To generate any appreciable level of income you need childcare.

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  • lewis514lewis514
    imageRoxyLynn:

    Regardless of the gender of the stay-at-home parent, no one gets paid to take care of their kid.  To generate any appreciable level of income you need childcare.

    Agree with this. DH works from home a few days per week and I work from home when not traveling (still on maternity leave right now). We have DD enrolled in FT Daycare to start in July. Neither of us will be able to get our work done if she's being difficult in terms of conference calls, web conferences and just work in general. DD is good 99% of the time but today for example, she's having one of her "days" where she needs full time attention. If this were to happen when we're working = not good.

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  • celiabwatsonceliabwatson

    That's why we're thinking about finding something that requires PT hours. We figure if the baby is good 50% of the time when he's home alone with it he'll still be able to get his hours in. Obviously if he were trying to work FT it wouldn't work, but we're hoping if we can find something flexible enough then he can get it done during naps or if nothing else he can work after I get home from school. Anyone know of anything like that?

    ?

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  • kathya-hkathya-h member

    When DD was born, DH worked as a loss prevention officer at a dept store.  His hours were 2-10 PM and sometimes days on weekends.  It does not pay that well but it allowed us to have child care only one or two days a week for an hour or so.  He also looked in to working at FedEx or UPS on their 4-8AM shift or their evening shift.  You won't see one another a lot but it will save you on child care.  I don't recommend it for long term.

    If he has a degree, he can be an online tutor or test grader during those seasons. 

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