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One friend- she also had a nanny. My friends hours weren't super regular but she was able to wah 2 days a week (but still had the nanny those days). She is actually leaving her job though to sah.

My sister - but she works at a DCP so she got free tuition!

If we had 3 (I have 2) we would have done a nanny - cheaper than 3 in DCP

Yep! I have some coworkers who have 3-4 kids who have been working their whole lives. I plan on WOH and having 3. As long as E is in kindergarten or older, it's financially feasible. As far as the nanny goes, I feel like it might not benefit my older kids to go from a group play setting to a very solo style setting. I'm not sure it's cheaper here, either

A girl i went to college with WOH full time with a set of twins and a girl about 14 months younger than them. They had an au pair for a bit and she went back to work when the twins were 3-ish.

The SAHMs i know with 3+ all have their kids SUPER close together in age. The WOHM have them spaced out more.

WFM isn't as important to me, or necessary, as flex-time or being able to leave and get to daycare if someone needs to. My husband's job is flexible and i'm looking to move into a less flexible career. But hey, lord knows i wouldn't be the only mom ever in healthcare

au pair is the way to go. I was thinking about going back to work, and the only way it made sense was an au pair. You pay a lot up front, and have to hope you find the right person, but it is a better deal financially.

@teawithpaloma: Initially, I was thinking 6/4/newborn for our age spacing, and 4 is pretty inexpensive for daycare at this point, that the benefit is really slim, I'd think. I just don't thinK i could have him in a daycare setting for 4 years, then be like "Here's your nanny" for ONE year, then send him to Kindergarten. Gah! But now that i'm seriously considering a career change, it'd be more like 7/5/newborn, so we'd just have before school care to mess with. The spacing is what makes me feel like i definitely want to go with an IUD after T is born! Our first two will be 25 months apart...basically, I definitely think it's feasible to work full time with 3+ kids. Lots of people do it, they just have to plan a bit carefully, maybe, heh.

Yes, several. In fact one of my admins has 6 kids (!!), but they are spaced out over 16 years so only 3 or 4 of them are in daycare at the same time. I can think of several other women I work with off the top of my head who have 3+ kids and are WOHM. I think for most of these women, they continue working even when daycare for 3 mostly cancels out their income because that situation is only short-term. They will end up better off staying in the workforce (especially because around here we don’t have a ton of great, large employers to pick from) than taking several years off, even if for several years that don’t have much $$ after childcare. Most people I work with do daycare, but some have a nanny.

My mom's manager has 8 kids I wish I knew how she does it! I think her husband either works part time or used to, plus the older kids are in school and old enough to help out at home.

My boss has 3 kids but there are 10 years between #2 and #3, and she also has her mom living with her. I have another co-worker who has 5 kids, AND she's a single mom, AND her whole family lives in another country. She's basically a superhero. Again though, they're spread over about 15 years. My BIL has a friend with 6 (soon to be 7) kids, they both WOH FT, and they both run marathons & triathlons. Just hearing about them makes me feel lazy, haha.

My coworker, a teacher, has 3. Her sister watches them (they are 5 and under).

@teawithpaloma: unfortunately I live in an area where the public education is not the best. Paying for tuition is a part of life!

And triplets are hard. When they were babies, we used to go over at night to help get them ready for bed. They are fortunate family is close by to help.

My mom was a WOHM who raised 4 kids, 2-3 years apart for each. My grandmother did provide care for the early years, with 2-3 days of daycare at a center starting at age 3 until we reached kindergarten. I know they paid her, but not sure how much - I imagine that if she had to pay normal daycare rates for all of us it might not have worked.

My aunt was (all of her kids are grown now), but they were pretty widely spaced. I think they just used daycare. Though as far as I know my grandmother has never worked regularly (maybe that's where I get it from), so she may have provided some childcare as well. My MIL had 4 as well, very close together. I've never thought to ask DH whether she worked when they were too young for school. Pretty sure she started leaving them home alone very young. DH is very fond of telling the story about how he thought he heard a prowler outside one night, and went out with a baseball bat looking for them. He was 7. Not sure if his siblings (twin sister and two younger brothers) were home, but I'm guessing they were.

Other than that, interestingly, I only know one person my own age with 3+ (4 in her case) kids, and she's a SAHM who homeschools.

My mom had three while working full-time as a doctor. We had a few aupairs through the years. No family close enough to help.

My aunt has four and works full time. They had a nanny for a while but now the youngest is in school.

My SIL has three and an incredibly successful political career.

My colleague has 3 kids. At one point all three were in daycare at same time! Her and her husband do not have any family help. She's a supervisory attorney over a staff of 12 in her group, but they are under staffed for the matters they handle for our large agency. She works full-time, and teleworks 1 day a week. She said she worked hard through undergrad, law, bar exam, and to get to be a supervisor, but being a mom is her favorite job!

My mom and MIL both WOH and had husbands that did the same. They both paid for childcare as neither had family nearby.

I have two cousins who are. One has a husband who works night shift and watches kids during the day, the other worked part time until the kids were in school and then uses after school care. Those are the only two I know irl who have 3.