Help me decide on a career!

[robin4kids]

I am not sure if this is the right place for this thread, but here it goes.

I have a BS is Education and i was a teacher for 3 years before I quit to stay home with my kids. I have been running a daycare out of my home ever since. I have 3 kids in school and 1 child I homeschool and a 3 y/o at home. Next year I could put everyone in school (We have full day preschool here.) and either go to work or to school myself.

I don't think I want to go back to teaching. It is not as fun as it used to be. There is too much required of teachers to do in a day and not enough time for fun unit studies and such. Also I would have to go back to school to get my masters, before i could get hired.
Also there are not many jobs out there.

So I am looking in to becoming a Physical Therapist Assistant -2 VERY intense years of school and $12,000 cost to do it. Income is around $30-$35,000 per year and there are a lot of jobs out there.

Speech Pathologist - 3-4 in school. ? money depending on where I choose, Over $35,000 a year pay. O.K amount of jobs out there.

Mail delivery - No school, have to take a test and everything depends on how well I do. Not sure how long I will wait for a job.

Message Therapist - Not looked into how long it takes, but I have heard you can make up to $60 an hour! Not sure how many jobs are out there.

My concerns- I have 5 kids and I am not sure how i will handle my school work and taking care of them.
I don't want my children in any daycare, so i have to work everything around my schedule and my DH's
I don't want to invest 2 or more years and thousands of dollars on a Career I can't get a job in, or will hate.
I want to be able to take a day off from my job if my child needs me. Job must be a little flexible.
I am TOTALLY open to other suggestions. I am great with kids, but don't want to have a whole class of them. I want to make good money and really enjoy it. I love doing physical things and have even thought about becoming a Park Ranger. I know i am all over the board. I need Suggestions?!!!

[Carita]

i vote for using your current degree and repurposing it... you like teaching, just not school k-12...

what about an educator at a zoo or nature center?... you can get those jobs by volunteering first. or a grammar school private tutor? or teaching for a co-op?

[BabyFinch]

I don't know much about the careers you mentioned, although I do know that around here the people I know who've graduated from massage therapy school have had a tough time finding a job and just "breaking in" to the field. But the ones that have seem very happy with it and make decent money. I'm an accountant (a B.S. in Accounting), and I will say that there are a lot of jobs out there for us and there are many that are willing to work with part-time and other flexible schedules. You would probably just have to go back to school for 2 years for this degree, since you already have a bachelor's. There are lots of different fields to go into and I was easily able to find a firm that would let me work 3 days/week and are very flexible. Anyway, just something to think about!

[robin4kids]

Accountant, hmmmm. See I am very interested in knowing what is out there. As much as I enjoy staying home with my kids, I am still working. So there are many draw backs. Like yesterday, one of my daycare kids arrived at 11:20 and then cried for the first hour he was with me. (He was not feeling well.) I had to tend to him and ignore everyone else. I had wanted to go on a field trip with the kids, but because the child came SOOO late and was so unhappy, we did not go anywhere.

There is no way we could EVER survive on just my DH's income. I need to find a job that is going to benefit me in the future as well as make me happy.

I have thought about trying to use my current degree, but there really is not much out there. I have friends that both DH and Wife quit their great paying jobs to go back to school to become teachers. They wanted Summers and Holidays off. Well they are finding out how hard it is to find jobs in this town. He Dh is working as a teacher assistant and the wife is Subbing. I don't want to go through a year or 2 of trying to get my foot in the door. It sucks and by the time you do, you have not desire to work any more.

So tell me about your job, or jobs you know of.

[Drummer's Wife]

Speech Therapy is usually Masters programs -- so you might only need 2 years since you have a Bachelors. Here they are in high demand, and the pay is a lot more than you quoted. Out of all the choices you mentioned, that's the one I would go for. (The SLP's at my DS's school all seem to really like their jobs, and they work school hours). You would probably do well since you were a teacher, and have experience with kids.

[JElaineB]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

Speech Therapy is usually Masters programs -- so you might only need 2 years since you have a Bachelors. Here they are in high demand, and the pay is a lot more than you quoted. Out of all the choices you mentioned, that's the one I would go for. (The SLP's at my DS's school all seem to really like their jobs, and they work school hours). You would probably do well since you were a teacher, and have experience with kids.

There will most likely be some prerequiste courses for an M.A. in Speech Language Pathology (clinical track) that the OP hasn't taken yet, but I do agree that an education background would be beneficial for that career. It may still take ~3 years or more though depending on the prerequisites needed. Here are some schools in NY that offer a Master's in SLP: http://www.gradschools.com/search/NY...ology/365.html

[bluebunny]

I have no idea about educational requirements but what about a school-based counselor? I would imagine you might need a masters.

A friend of mine is an occupational therapist assistant and did a 2 (?) year program at the local technical/community college. She works in the school system.

Are there any other school careers you would be interested in? Like a reading specialist?

That's about all I can think of...

[meandmine]

Originally Posted by robin4kids

I have friends that both DH and Wife quit their great paying jobs to go back to school to become teachers. They wanted Summers and Holidays off. Well they are finding out how hard it is to find jobs in this town. He Dh is working as a teacher assistant and the wife is Subbing. I don't want to go through a year or 2 of trying to get my foot in the door. It sucks and by the time you do, you have not desire to work any more.

So tell me about your job, or jobs you know of.

I don't mean to derail the thread, but oh my gosh ... *What* were they thinking?!

Summers and holidays! Yep, that's nice, but the hours during the school year are really really hard on a family -- at least on mine. I put in loooong hours and it isn't always much fun for my kids as a result (I am a single mom, so that makes it tougher).

I think returning to teaching is probably not your best choice as you have pointed out. It is really rugged these day -- really high stress.

PT and MT require a lot of physical strength and science study -- make sure you feel you have the stamina if you pursue either route.

Two fields that provide $ and flexibility: Coaching (personal or professional coaching) or Professional Organizing. There is a coaching certificate program in my area that is highly respected and folks are entering the field and doing very well!

M

[marimara]

Massage Therapy: yeah about that. The average "career" life span of a MT is 5 years. I did it for 6 and have repetitive stress syndrome and arthritis. I made up to 85/hr. BUT you don't work every hour. So averaging it all out, the numbers are misleading. You only get paid when you have a client or if you are paid by the hour, then you won't get nearly that much. I made 20/hr 6 yrs ago when paid hourly, whether I had a client or not, and the owner expected me to clean toilets "since I worked for him". If you work for yourself, you only get paid when you have a client. It's very intense physical work. And emotionally draining, as everyone tells you all their problems. I would look for something other than MT. Just my 2 cents. HTH!


whoa that was my 1000th post!!!!!!! woo hooo!!!!!!

[Mary-Beth]

could you teach at an alternative school with fewer hours and perhaps more flexibility on how you can teach? would you be interested in putting together a class for homeschool kids and teaching them? and you could tutor...

I'm thinking of going to massage school...so I'm partial to that idea. I want to work part time and have flexible hours. I've always wanted to do this though. I was a social worker before staying home with my kids so people telling me their problems wouldn't phase me.

[listipton]

Have you thought about becoming a librarian?

[GranoLLLy-girl]

Originally Posted by listipton

Have you thought about becoming a librarian?

Library science requires a master's degree these days and can be very intense. Hope you like linguistics--because you will be taking a few courses in that, and statistics (at least in Virginia).

I think the best option for you would be speech pathology/therapy. I have a PhD in education and use it in an administrative position so I know a little bit about education. I would think that speech would be the closest to your current former occupation. Not only that, but you wouldn't have to get an additional bachelor's degree just to get enough courses to get what you needed to then pursue a master's degree.
There are ALWAYS speech positions open in the school divisions that I am familiar with and I live in a very populated and very popular resort area on the east coast (where everyone seems to want to live and the housing never really tanked even after the bubble burst).

Just remember--whatever you do: the economy won't be like this forever and consider the area in which you live: what are the opportunities like in your area (they are not the same in every region).

FWIW--I would say no to massage therapy, just based on what the person above posted and because I've known a couple of people to go into that only to burn out quickly within a couple of years.

Teaching can be incredibly rewarding if you have a supportive administrative team!