madam777, who ressurrected the thread may be you could move into something that pays better in that case or make sure your children pick higher paid careers if that matters to them?
in my case solicitor, own firm, quite a bit (more than most on here) but nothing if clients don't pay me, no maternity leaves, no sick pay, no pension, no holiday pay etc etc. To get there though I have worked full time for sicne 1983 without a single break and always full time (2 weeks holiday to have a baby in kind of full time!) and I am only in this fortunate position because of stuff like best A levels in the school, top prizes in law at a good university, worked at one of best law firms in the UK and since working for myself giving clients something that they want such that they keep coming back and back to me for some reason. Also remember those of us earnign quite a bit about half is taken by the state in tax and NI so you need to halve the figures and we don't get things like childcare help, child benefit, tax credits and we don't even get a single person tax allowance.
In fact most people probably aren't prepared to make the sacrifices those of us who earn a lot have made or even be mentally or physically fit enough to do things like work 20 or 24 hours straight without a break and no over time payments.