When my wife went back into the workforce she took a job that she was vastly overqualified for with the HS. The location and time was great and met our needs as family. To move to the next level she needed a Master’s. She went back and got it not too long ago. We don’t have the family requirements that we used to have with our youngest a senior in HS. (Soon we will be empty nesters) So when can’t make it home at the normal time it is no big deal. She will get a pension that will help with retirement and offset some of the years she wasn’t working.
I have thought plenty about our decision for one of us to stay home. It definitely affected us financially and times got lean. We couldn’t save the $150-200K per kid so they could pick almost any college to go to. It was a tough pill to swallow. Who doesn’t want the best for their kids. My kids ended up being high stats and I give my wife about 95% of the credit. She did the work to make sure they started school on the right foot. In my mind there was a cost, but I wouldn’t have changed it. We feel extremely lucky that we got to raise our kids and not have someone else do it. My kids will get through college without debt because of our little savings and their hard work. I am good with that. They are starting out adulthood ahead of where my wife and I started. We had debt and plenty of it.