A friend of mine recently decided to quit her job and stay home with her two kids, who are almost 1- and 4-years-old. It wasn't a decision she made lightly.

First off, the family relied on her income- even though much of it went to pay the nanny, the money made things like trips to see family and eating out an easy possibility. Second, she'd worked for the same company for more than a decade and felt loyal to her boss, a mentor who had helped her advance and who also let her work from home a few days a week.

But she says she'd felt the pull to stay home and her heart wasn't in the work anymore. It felt wasteful to spend so much on a nanny for a career she no longer loved. So she and her husband went over their finances and decided that if they dipped into their savings and cut back their spending, they could pay off much of their debt and live on one income-even if it would be tight. She starts her new life as a stay-at-home mother next week.

She's nervous about the decision, of course, and wonders if she'll go bonkers at home or miss having an office. She also is nervous that this will this change the balance of power in her marriage. Still, she's pretty stalwart in her decision and quite excited.

I've quizzed her incessantly about the why and how of her decision. In part, I think, because since becoming a mother I've fantasized about quitting from time to time. A few years ago I even wrote a post here about the sort of last-straw day that gets me into a 'chuck it all' mood.

According to a recent white paper published by Ad Age on working women, almost 65% of working women said they would rather stay home with their families full-time if it were financially" target="_blank" title="ad.在金融方面">financially possible. I don't fall in with the majority.

It's not just financial need that keeps me at work; more significant is my work as a journalist. When I do think of quitting, it's almost never to stay home with my two kids. Instead, I think about pursuing something new or maybe freelancing so I could set my own hours and work on just the things I really like (that's also a fantasy; most freelancers do plenty that is geared to simply paying the bills). But even then, I snap out of it. I thrive on the stimulation of an office and the pace of a newsroom.

Readers, do you fantasize about chucking it all? Is it a possibility?

Jennifer Merritt

• possibility [,pɔsə´biliti] n.可能(性)；希望；前途 (初中英语单词)
• career [kə´riə] n.经历；生涯；职业 (初中英语单词)
• nervous [´nə:vəs] a.神经的；神经过敏的 (初中英语单词)
• working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中英语单词)
• financial [fi´nænʃəl] a.金融的，财政的 (初中英语单词)
• decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
• decade [´dekeid] n.十年(间) (高中英语单词)
• significant [sig´nifikənt] a.重要的；意义重大的 (高中英语单词)
• thrive [θraiv] vi.兴旺；繁荣 (高中英语单词)
• wasteful [´weistfəl] a.浪费的，挥霍的 (英语六级单词)
• incessantly [in´sesntli] ad.不断地，不停地 (英语六级单词)
• financially [fi´nænʃəli] ad.在金融方面 (英语六级单词)
• fantasy [´fæntəsi] n.幻想(曲)，想象 (英语六级单词)