Also...

On the subject of needing a second income.

I have been a working parent long enough to realize that the "second income" is often largely fictitious. 

 

Between sick days and making arrangements for scheduled school "outages" like summer vacation, winter breaks, etc., you are either taking tons of time off work or scrambling to foist your kids off on sombody, dozens if not hundreds of days a year (between all 4 kids).

 

If you're lucky, you have people to call on that you don't have to pay... but even then, I think you're losing something perhaps more important than money when you tell your feverish child you can't stay with her but luckily there is (fill in the blanks) who IS available to stick around.

 

Isn't she lucky?  Aren't you lucky?

 

I'd rather not rely on that kind of luck.