I am currently in a secure reasonably well paid job, however its long hours, very stressful and is starting to take its toll on my family life and keeping me awake at night!. My wife is setting up a hairdressing salon, she had planned to work part time to work hours to suit with school & playgroup hours etc, but has had a huge amount of interest from past clients when she worked for a large chain of salons (pre having our three children over the past six years)…..she has said over the weekend she wants to go at it full time and have me at home with the kids which will also save on a childcare costs? ….one side of me says 8) could get on the bike a bit more….the other is its a BIG risk.

I’d be waiting to see how the salon pans out. But, if you can afford it, yes, then use the time to retrain for something else when you don’t need to be around for the family so much. You’re a long time dead. That’s all.

Mmmm being at home with kids when do you propose to ride your bike more?

Apart from the financial considerations, are you someone who’s happy being at home all day every day with no adult company?

I worked part time when mine were young with the priority being the kids,and wouldn’t have missed it.

Don’t rely on riding your bike more though unless you’ve a way of towing all 3 behind you. 🙂

Getting on the bikes would be when they are at school/playgroup (both next to Cannock Chase)

I have them on Saturdays when my wife works and love it as long as I am keeping them busy though

My plan had been to see how the Salon goes before packing in 15 years of hard work but the sleepless nights with stress etc and not spending as much time with the children

two of my mates are house husbands.. ones wife is a quack the others is a special needs teacher. they both earnt less than the mrs so jacked it in.. they get NO free time to ride bikes.. they have to do a ton of work plus thier wives earn a cracking guaranteed crust
no disrespect to your mrs skils with a pair of scissors but half a dozen swearing allegiance does not make a business only feet through the door do that. she’ d need 250 regulars to support a fulltime business and make a dollar and then she ‘d have the admin paperwork to do etc aint no walk in the park
give her 3 years then decided if you can afford to jump ship.

Agree you wait till the salon is up and running.

The big question is how easy it will be for you to get back into work when the kids go to school – we’ve been looking at the househusband thing a few times, but it was far easier for my wife (social worker) to get a decent part time job after a career break than for me, so it made sense for me to keep working even though she’d have made more money if we’d swapped roles.

Just think of it as hobbyhair cutting,theres a lot more to running a buissness than ex customers saying theyll let you wash and cut their hair from 6 years ago.

Let her go her own way , kids in childcare, just like other working families, then se how you both feel this time next year.

I became a part time house husband a couple of years back and it has it’s pros and cons..

I thought it would leave me with loads of time to ride and paint and enjoy music with my son.. (my four loves) but in reality it is a busy, frustrating lifestyle that can swing between brutally hectic and interminably boring in the blink of an eye..

having said that I spend loads of time at home with my boy and I am my own boss.. I think maybe that’s where I fail though.. I’m a poor boss..

My partner works from home however and so we are constantly mixing work and homelife which I think makes it a lot more complicated.. so not perhaps a clear example..

I would say go for it though as I imagine that a heck of a lot more could be made of the situation than I am currently managing.. 🙂

I don’t know if it would work for you. It did for me, but we’re all different. Is it a risk that if you don’t jump straight in then there isn’t the option for the salon to go full time? If there is a viable business sat there waiting to be grabbed, then why not go for it? Do the numbers stack up as it being able to pay the way for the whole family? I did some freelance work (paying for any necessary childcare from that) which kept me in beer and bike bit money so I didn’t need to feel I had to beg from the missus which I know helped me a lot emotionally the arrangement. We had also planned for it from before we started having kids. As others have said, not much time for riding bikes, but that is starting to ease now eldest is a teenager and can act as a babysitter.