I and DH both chose the public sector for reasons of family friendliness, work life balance and personal integrity. On the whole, we have no regrets and like our jobs, and are perfectly sure We have made the right choice. But with DS2 born with major special needs, we currently need our parents financial support in order to keep up our lifestyle (which isn't extravagant in any way, but not frugal either). They do gift stuff such as family vacations we would not otherwise be able to afford, take us out to nice restaurants, provide free babysitting, pay for the kids musical lessons, have skipped in for private daycare etc...there is a lot of help that keeps us in decent comfort. We'd certainly have many moments of having to forgo things we'd like to do as a family or being able to offer our kids, and maybe I might feel bitter if I did.
The way it is, I do, occasionally, have moments of simple green envy. Because when I look at the private sector, I do look at the right tail of the earnings curve which is where we would both be according to our qualifications. I am not so unreasonable to think that I would have been able to raise the three kids I have the way I want to raise them and still be on that end of the curve - we do milk the public sector benefits in the possibilities for parental leave, part time work and job security for what it's worth. But don't you ever tell me that if I had given the public sector my all, worked full time at the highest level of government, the financial compensation including benefits, would have come in any way close to what I could have made in the private sector, selling my soul and billing somewhere around 5 to 10 times what I now make in an hour. I am not looking at the alternative career prospects of a social studies teacher.
