9 to 5

Sometime in the next few weeks or months, my wife will return to an office environment for the first time in more than a decade. She's spent the intervening time raising three kids, doing some consulting work, and running two businesses. Sounds like a good thing, right? Intellectual fulfillment, extra income, etc. All true, but it stands to serve as a rather large disruption for two kids who have only ever known a world with their mother at home. They have seen me head off to the office day after day, so they learned to accept that as a fact of life. This, however, is something new. One year ago, this would have been a much more difficult discussion. I was waking up at 5am four days a week to hoof it into the city, spending one day a week telecommuting so as to escape the brutal 2-3 hours of daily travel time. Last spring, however, I switched that around, to the point that I now visit the office one day a week, working from home the other four. Now, having my wife return to the rat race is not the sort of choice that will drive my kids to a child care program. Now, it just means I get to be even more hands-on with my little guys. Of course, they're also reaching a point where they'll be more and more self-sufficient. No matter how we look at it, it's a big change for us, especially for my wife. She's understandably excited and nervous, but we're both eager for the adventure. Ready, set...