We have a great arrangement right now. For years, I commuted about an hour each way. My wife stayed home with the children and I saw them at about 7pm each evening. This worked out fine though I was often exhausted by the time I made it home. About 18 months ago, I was given the opportunity to take over as blog editor… Read more
I don't know anyone who could argue the fact that two parents is better. There is always so much to do to care for the kids around the house, keep the house up, bring home the bacon, etc. that having to do all that alone would be super draining. Being able to shift the burdens of parenthood from day to day between… Read more
I'm fortunate to earn enough for my wife to stay home with our 4 kids. Even then it can be difficult to carve out family time for all of us to be together. We've done a few things to encourage time together: Read more
Thanks. I work for a government agency. The schedule is seniority-based, and right now, I have very little seniority. :( But, to elaborate on what you said, it's hard to argue with a regular wage...and good insurance, and awesome retirement, and a mellow work environment. I got hosed on the schedule, but I'm… Read more
There's no perfect setup or particularly good time to have kids. We didn't have a house and I didn't have a job when we started trying to have our first. Parenting is about going with the flow and making do with what you've got, whether that's a little or a lot. Read more
I am going to get married in a couple of months. Both of us had made it clear during dating that we won't have kids. She will finish her grad school and find a job in her field. Both of us consider our love for each other to be quite important, and have seldom let our school/work get in between us. It isn't… Read more
This has been on my mind lately. My family situation is about to change, big time. As it stands now, my daughter spends weekends with me and the school week with her dad. We're divorced, he lives by a great school, I pay child support, it works well enough.
BUT. My work schedule is going to change. I have no say… Read more
The perfect family set-up is....the one you have that works for you and your family. Me thinks what you are asking is whether we think the idealized nuclear family of yore is still valid.
My wife and I have one child, 2 years old, and we are considering adding a second child to the mix. We both work full-time jobs. She works from about 8:00 to 5:00 and I work from 7:00 to 3:30. Unfortunately, my job has a lot of overtime and I end up working an additional 10 hours or more and also take a LOT of… Read more
Every family is different. I am a stay at home dad. I didn't really plan on it. It happened due to our family moving for her new job. At the time we had a 3 month old. She started her new job that made nearly 11 times more than I made at my old job. Rather than look for daycare, I decided to be a full time dad. … Read more
(not all of our fiends had this luxury) Read more
Yes, we are really lucky that his office is pretty flexible. They want to be a good place to work, and a couple of years ago they created a new policy that people can work from home one day a week. My job is pretty flexible too. There are only a couple of hours per week that I have to be somewhere, and everything else… Read more
"it seems that the key is just being flexible/working with both partners needs." Read more
Sounds like your parents were ahead of the game in splitting up the running of the house - both of our sets of parents were far more traditional/old school.
I think fostering is a great idea - well done for considering this as part of your future. Read more
I came from a family with equitable chores. My dad worked while my mom stayed home. She kept the house and he did the cooking and groceries. He helped out for deep cleaning/prepping for holidays which were often held at our house. Read more
First, by no means do I think we have the perfect set up, just this is how things are for now. Read more
My husband and I both work full time. I do the cooking, he does the basic cleanup and laundry, and we have someone come in every other week to do the heavy cleaning. We don't plan on ever having kids, but will probably get into foster care some day. Neither of us plan to stop working, though. We want to take in… Read more
