@greensandpinks: Back in 2001, a month after our youngest daughter was born, my husband was laid off (the company decided to get rid of the technical training side of the business). Due to his experience in technical training, he was able to get a few side jobs the following year that was enough for our family with four children. Yes, there were times we had to dip into savings, but we made it. He was then offered an opportunity from one of the companies he did work for he could be hired full time by them or be a contractor. He wanted to be hired on, but I told him that he would be better off being a contractor, because he would only have to work half as much for the more money (which was good to allow for us to get insurance on our own and pay the self employment tax). That decision has served him well and he is still under contract with the same company all these years later. While there were some times he was gone four weeks in a row (home on weekends), but there were other times he was home, and not working, for four weeks in a row. We could take long vacations (I wasn't working) with the children. Since I homeschooled our children, we could do these vacations at any time during the year, including going to visit family. While not everyone has the opportunity to become self employed or own their own business, nor does everyone have the personality to be able to do it, but for us it worked out great!