I am so close I can taste it. For 4 years I have wanted to be a Stay-At-Home-Dad. Now it looks like there is a slim - and I mean slim chance it could happen. Below is the story.

Tired Tunia has worked at the local library for the last 3 1/2 years as a part time children's' librarian. As she has worked, she has built a good reputation for herself - both with the clientele and with the management. She has been positioning herself for a full time position and now, when we had given up hope, one has presented itself. That's GREAT you say. Well.... hold on now.

Here's the problem(s.) First - The almighty $$$. If I were to just quit and have Tunia bring home the bacon, we would take a 40% loss on our income. Now, we could probably do away with a lot of things, but I don't know about 40%. Our mortgage alone would be about $100 more than her gross would be for two weeks. So, I would have to find a way to make up at least 1/2 the loss (or about 10 - 12 K.) Unfortunately, there are not a whole lot of part time jobs that I qualify for that pay $15/hour. I have never heard of a part time production supervisor. Have you?

Of course, I could continue to work, take care of the kiddos during the day and work my regular 7pm - 7am shift 4 days a week. Sleep is highly over rated, right? Or, we could stick the kids into some commercial day care for 4 days a week and I could give up on being a SAHD. But neither Tunia nor I are comfortable with that, plus it would eat up a significant portion of the money she would bring home, so would it be worth it? And what about Pre-school for Bombaloo? If both of us are working, how will she get to keep going?

We did have a home based day care lined up with somebody we know and trust very much. But the librarian Tunia is replacing dilly dallied so much deciding if she was going to stay home with her new baby, our friend had to take on somebody else's kids and is now full.

So - Now what? Tunia needs to take this job. She deserves it. She has been at home for 4 years. Full time children's' librarian jobs do not come around very often in this area. It could be years before another opportunity arises. I, on the other hand, really don't like what I am doing and would love to be the primary care taker.

Well, I guess for now we will just find somebody to take the kiddos for the time being. I will begin looking for good part time work and hopefully something will come along after a few months and we can get Bombaloo back into her Pre-School.

Anyway, I know at least a significant portion of my readership are At-Home parents. Do you have ideas or suggestions? Do you know of any legitimate home based work? Do any of you hold part time jobs to help make ends meet? What are they? Anything you can tell me would be of great help. Thanks, and wish us luck.

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