I'm very fortunate. Back about 7 years ago, my wife was offered a promotion with her company, which meant relocating. We took the bonus and relocating expense check and paid off most all of our debt. (I was working two jobs at the time)

We suddenly found ourselves with options. We decided that we didn't have to be the traditional family where the wife stays home and the husband goes to work, especially since I couldn't earn the income in three years what my wife makes in one year. And she loves her career, so it was really a no-brainer. We decided that our kids would be best served with me at home as opposed to farming them out to daycare. It's worked out well, although I often think of what it would be like to once again have a career. Nevertheless, I think we made the right decision, especially considering all of the **** that kids are faced with today. Times have changed since I was in school.

But it's not as easy as most people would think. I work more now than I ever did for an employer, but I do have the ability to chose my own schedule. When the kids are out of school during the summer, I'm basically home-bound. So I try to get in as much golf as possible, whilst still tending to the stay-home dad thing. Given the conditions we had this winter, I took advantage of less snow days for the kids, and reasonable golf weather for me. :)

But I don't take it for granted. I went from working 70 hours/week to make ends meet to suddenly being semi-retired. And I say "semi" because I'm sure that when the kids get older, I will once again look for something to help pay off their college tuition. LOL.... But I have the best job in the world right now, and I don't take it for granted. ;)