How do you do it? How much would camp in the summer & after school care be for 8 kids? Who watches them at night when your working as a nurse?
On the TLC paycheck you can have overnight help but on a nurse's paycheck? Then you have the sick days for each kid. I never knew any large family that the mother worked. If she is going to work as a nurse Jon & Haley will have to move back in.
I had a midwife who did have 10 kids (or some large number. I was in disbelief, but it was confirmed.) She ended up leaving the practice to teach at a community college for better hours. But she didn't come off of 5 years of television either. She had been a single mom, though. But she doesn't have multiples and likely had some help with her older children or something. But even on a midwifery salary--it would be extremely tough. I don't have additional info though on things such as child support or whether their home was paid for.
IT can be extremely challenging to work FT as a single parent and the more children you have, the more challenging it could be. I did eventually become a latchkey child.
I'm sure Kate would catch heck if her children were latchkey children when they reach the legal age.
When I was sick that I had to hire a nanny--a FT nanny cost me $10 per hour for 3 kids. I would expect a nanny for 8 kids to make a little bit more (though cost per unit does go down.
).
She did work a full 40 hours in 1 week and that was $400. Even on a great salary, that is a budget pincher.
Daycares don't discount well enough that 8 kids would be astronomical in after school care.
She did briefly go back to nursing, but she had a husband at home who watched the children on the weekends they did that.
I know the resolution seems so simple--but in this world, it isn't as cut and dried as it seems and it doesn't matter how many families do it. Most families with that number of kids are still in tact, so there is always one caregiver available to the kids. Even in a modest living situation--it would be tough.
My husband lost his job last week and the amount we have to last us 6 months...won't quite make it that long. We do not live in a mansion--but we have debt. The amount, are what many families survive on for an entire year. We have cut what we can, are asking for assistance where we can (through our bank--not sure if they will "help" or not) and he has applied for unemployment which he is eligible for and I think would be enough to help us stretch to the 6 months.
While I am sure familes live just fine on that money, it just isn't how our budget is set up.
I know that the collective "we" relish in talking smack about the irresponsible spending of money. But as a unit, both Jon and Kate made decisions with their family budget and at this time it is unlikely that even in the best of circumstances and liquidation of assets, a nursing job isn't going to cut it.
Much like my husband getting a full time job at
Walmart--will not cut it for our family.
Folks can judge us if they want to--in many respects, we are not different from J&K relative to our income.
And while it is easy to offer solutions from the armchair quarterback position--there just isn't enough stalking that anyone can do that would garner them enough information to be in a position to prove that a nursing job would be sufficient.
You poor thing.
Just say what everyone knows, having a lot of kids is hard, we need help. It's just like the "we'll never have a Nanny" comment...
