Family-friendly job?

ButterflyMum wrote: early childhood teaching. would be mine, but not having my diploma mean's I would have to study we well not sure I could cope with that.

ditto butterflymum am hopeing to start next year

I would highly recommend never owning a small hotel or motel. Worked at one for a few years and my bosses never got a break, or when they did they had to pay someone to come in and look after the place. Not to mention you're working 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week (kind of like motherhood, but less rewarding lol)

Probably not your thing, but I think farming is up there. I grew up on a farm, and we did so much as a family - and learnt how to work hard as well!

I grew up on a farm too, Becs, and wish there was a way to bring our kids up on one. I reckon we got to spend more time with Dad than we would have otherwise, because we'd go out on the farm with him. At least our kids will have both sets on grandparents on farms to visit.

busymum wrote: What about family businesses? Do any of you like that kind of idea? Is owing rental properties almost as stressful as owing a motel?

Oh yes, hun, oh yes. Even if you go through a rental agency, there is still the worry of "bad" tennants - you know, not just wreckers, but ones who don't pay their rent, smoke inside regardless of what your rules are. Plus there is the money you spend on getting the place back up to scratch in between tennants if previous ones left the place a shambles - agencies are not always that good with that stuff,. also you need to cover your mortgage in between times as well, so if you have a week or so in between tennants, or have to have major repairs done, you are covering those costs yourself.

i would never own rentals. I have seen both my in-laws and my parents have huge problems with tenants. My mum's house had an inspection beore the tenants moved out - she failed to notice a bloody great hole in a wall. one that you could walk through to the next room. And the tenants broke into the shed and stole all sorts of crap.
And hate to admit it - as a renter - but we have a lot more rights than the landlord it seems. When our last landlord was selling the place we could refuse open homes (which we did), not let them come in unless we were home (which we did) and all sorts of stuff....they ended up waiting until our contract was up and then put it on the market.

At least when you come home Theresa your time with family is your time. You don't have to keep working. Once the children get older they will be up later and a 4pm finish will be great. At the moment it is probably a little hard because they go to bed early so you probably don't feel like you have a lot of family time.

I worked for a family owned business, and the husband was always at work! Not sure how family friendly it is. He did have his teenage sons work for him, so that may be one thing.
Didn't have weekends off though.

IMHO office work offers the most flexibility for the $$.