Stay at Home Mom

[AngieDoogles]

More advice needed!

Aiden is 7 months old now and it has been a BLAST being a stay at home mom. I am SO lucky that we were able to work it out for me to be home with him all the time (except when I meet a client for my business - and I control when and how much I am willing to do for that). However, I've been vaguely looking at social work positions so that if a super awesome, flexible kind of job came up, I could apply. Well, I happened to run into an acquaintance recently who is director of human services for a pretty large non-profit that aids homeless families with children in my area. When she found out that I have a master's in social work, she was very interested in having me apply for her position that she needs to fill before retiring. She's basically told me that I've got the job if I want it. The job itself seems super fulfilling without all of the stress, bureaucracy, and red tape that is so frustrating with most social services jobs. It pays great with incredibly flexible hours and I'd be supervising case managers with bachelor's degrees as well as master degree interns from the university. It would be great experience for when I apply to a doctorate program (which is necessary to be a professor...my ultimate goal).

The only problem of course, is that I'd have to leave Aiden two days a week. I have a friend willing to watch him in our home one day each week, but I'm not sure what we're going to do for the other day. And it will BREAK MY HEART to leave him after being home with him for so long.

So here are my questions: Did you chose to stay at home or work? Would you do it differently if you could? If you worked out of the home, do you have any tips/advice for making that any easier? Would I be stupid to turn down such a great opportunity? Would I be stupid to take a job and miss out on time with Aiden?

This is one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make.