This is part 2 of my discussion about working full-time and being a mom. This is my current dilemma - to work or not to work - and I'm fortunate to have the choice, I know. But it doesn't make it an easy choice.

Part 1 is here. It was a general discussion about what I do right now as well as some of the problems with working full-time outside of the home.

Here are the good things I see about getting a full-time job:

One, the money. If I worked full time as a School Library Media Specialist (that's a school librarian to most people), which is the profession I'm trained for, I could make a low-middling salary for 10 months of work.

As a writer, I make an under-the-poverty-line salary for working about 25 hours/week.

I could make probably 6 times as much as a Media Specialist as I can writing right now. I would also get health insurance and could carry my family. Since my husband is self-employed this would be a huge benefit.

I might be able to make more as a writer as my career progresses, but I don't know when that would be. My press only has one book and it's hard to extrapolate where I'll be in 5 years' time. Can we wait 5 years?

If I went back to work full time I would have to give some things up, naturally. Blogging is probably the first thing that would have to go - or at least it would be cut down quite a bit. My publishing company would not go, but it would be hard to keep it up and I'd probably have some late nights during my crunch times. My volunteer time would go. I also do some volunteer writing (for the FRUA newsletter as well as book reviews for various publications). That would go.

Housecleaning would be turned over to someone else. I wouldn't miss that.

My children would need to be in afterschool care, unless I worked at the school they attended. I don't think they'd mind it, but I would. But maybe my husband could change his work schedule so that he's home with them a couple afternoons a week. My older son, in particular, would probably enjoy being around other kids every afternoon.

I know I would enjoy working. I always have. I work hard and I'm good at my job and it would also solve one problem I have with writing which is the loneliness of it. I like to talk to people. I am a good teacher. Sitting at home in front of my computer I'm doing neither of those things. I think I'm ready to be back in the professional world...

And then there's the job that I saw the other day. It would be perfect. It's not in my kids' school district, which is both a negative and a positive - a negative because I'll be a little further away, but a postive because I've worked for this district before and I didn't love it. This job would be at a brand new school and is probably the closest out-of-district school to where I live. Who knows if I'd get the job, but in the meantime I need to figure out if I want to apply. I need to think everything through before I make the call - I don't want to seem like a big flake.

So - thoughts? What would you do?