I've got 2 DCs at primary school. We have just moved from a city to a smallish town. Since we had the kids DH has been main earner but I have had a succession of part time contract jobs (work in finance in not for profit secctor). We are comfortably off and my net earnings were always pretty small after paying for childcare but I always felt worth doing to keep myself in the employment loop. We always chose nanny type child care as we wanted the one to one and flexibility that that brings and we felt that it was best for the kids which took priority over financial considerations.
Where we live now there are far fewer opportunities for me and childcare is much trickier (no pool of bright young women looking for jobs to pay their way through college). So am now wondering whether should take the plunge and become a proper SAHM.
I don't have problems with the lifestyle but am worried that if anything happened to DH or his job I would render myself unemployable by stepping outside of the loop.
I'd love to hear from people who have done this and then got back into work when their kids were older and needed less parental input. I'm 46 so would be quite old by the time we got to that stage and would be worried that my experience would be out of date.
Have done voluntary and unpaid work in the past and happy to do this again provided it fitted with family life but not sure if it's enough to keep my CV looking good.