New job, more money but less time with kids

[Sander]

Hi..bit of a dilemma and would appreciate views. I have a good job at present (43K) but the best bit is it is education so I get 12 weeks off a year and can look after my two young boys during their holidays. Now have a new job opportunity (50K + bonus) but holidays will be standard 25 days + there is up to 10 weeks travel abroad. Present job will not really go anywhere further but is stable, new job is unknown but might go somewhere. What would you do?

You'll soon adjust to the extra money but will resent the lack of time off and away from home. Stay where you are!

Spend more time with my children.

Yup - children time too. You won't regret losing out on £7k like you might in future regret not doing things with the kids......

There are plenty of people stuck with 20d A/L per year and

Stay put.

That kind of time with your dc is priceless.

What does your other half think?

My instinct would be to stay put - you don't say how old your boys are but that time when they're young and need taking care of just goes so quickly. It's such a small proportion of your working life. And presumably you'll have the same opportunities workwise (i.e. you could move to what I'm guessing is private sector) when they're older?

There will be other job opportunities in the future. You won't get too many summer holidays with the kids before they're grown up. Anyway, I found that lots of business travel got tedious after a while.

How old are your children?

Travel and time would win over £ for me, I'm so tired and always trying to catch up. I would bite your arm off for the job you have now.

Thank you for the messages. My boys are 8 and 3. The money is actually a bit more. If I leave present job I get 10k redundancy and the bonus is 5. The other half is thinking more money would be useful. She works 3 days. I don't really want to take it. I love spending as much time as possible with the boys, bit soft like that. What you all say is right but its a lot of money and there's ambition and all that. I'm a bit of a late dad now, past 40, so it cuts both ways, spend as much time with the boys or max the job front before its too late. I don't think I'll take it though. I'm happy enough now, the extra money might buy some more stuff but a too much cost. It's a decision for me though,

Stay where you are. Time with your family is worth more than 7k (after tax).

Just to thank you all for taking the time to reply to my email. Your comments were incredibly helpful. The comment from BriansBrain 'I would bite your arm off for the job you have' made me realise just how very fortunate I was. I turned the job down and am now thinking of how to spend the Summer with the kids which is so much better than thinking how I might spend a little more money! thanks again

I think you've made the right decision.

Last year one of our DDs, aged 10 at the time, told me "daddy's family is his blackberry and computer" no parent wants to hear that.

Stay, I made the same decision and it's a very good one!

good dad right there...