I am a teacher at the top of the upper pay scale, so regardless of my skills and experience, I'm considered expensive. I've been told as much by the HT at the local secondary school, and have recently seen a job advertised for main scale teachers only.
I have two young DCs. One is in school and the other is 18mo.
We moved last year, so I'm now quite a distance away from my 0.5 PT job. However we can manage on our income and I only need to make the journey 3 times a week. I had told myself that if a FT position came up very locally I would apply, but otherwise I haven't so far been tempted enough to go for anything further afield (but closer than my existing job, IYSWIM). I do end up doing freelance work to top up our income, and this is a pain. We could still get by without it though.
A position has come up, and because of some of the freelance work I've done, I'm likely to be offered it. It's not on our doorstep but it's much closer than where I currently work, It's FT and my position on the pay scale isn't an issue. I imagine this is quite a rarity.
So, in my position would you give up 2 days a week with your youngest DC (who will be starting school in 2 years), for an opportunity that might not present itself again? Or would you be prepared to bump along indefinitely so that you could be home some of the time with DC and able to do some school runs? Financially we would, for the first time, be worry free. Is it worth it?