My Wife Gave Up Her Teaching Job

My wife was a teacher for eight years. However, she gave up her job after the birth of our son. Why did she do that? Here's my wife's story, read on to find out...


I love children and went into teaching. It seems to me as the perfect job or so I thought. After a while, I became disillusioned by the behaviour of the pupils. Their value systems, their attitudes towards study and life shocked me. I kept asking why are they like this? We were not like that when we were schooling. Could it be due to lack of supervision and participation from both their parents as they are too busy working? I definitely do not wish my children to be like that.


It took me four years after marriage before I decided I am ready to have my first child. I commit to my son and myself a one-year no-pay leave so that I can spend time with him. I never regretted doing that. I enjoyed waking up with him by my side and seeing his smiling face. I was there when his first tooth cut through his gums, uttered his first word and took his first step. I told myself then that I made the right choice. The time with my son was something money cannot buy. My husband has always been very supportive and wanted very much to be an active role in our son’s growing up. He just can’t because he holds a job that binds him hand and foot.


Taking the one-year no-pay leave was the bravest decision we made so far. We have always been a dual income family. By taking the leave, it would mean that our income will be halved but bills keep coming. I had no choice but to be sucked back into the corporate world after that one year. As much as I wanted to spend time with my son, I simply can’t. My son often sees a mummy who is too tired to play with him.


I kept asking myself why I can’t have the best of both worlds. I am not happy seeing myself 5 years from now. I wanted family time but continuing what I am doing, I don't see myself having more family time 5 years down the road. We needed something else to give us the income and also the time that we wanted. I do not wish to trade my time for money. The true financial freedom that we are looking for is that money will still flow to us even when we are not working. Yes, we want residual income. That was why we started a home-based business for ourselves.