Are there any care homes near by? I have a friend who works as a private carer in a home. She is employed directly by the family of the person she is looking after, she provides additional care that the care workers in the facility don't have time to do. No nursing qualifications required.

Dog gone why didn't I think of that...

I figure if we all throw enough ideas out there something will blossom.

Have you ever thought about franchising? :

..::HOOTERS::..

I know a dog groomer, she makes quite a good income, she also has a small supply shop that sells grooming stuff, and offers day sitting as well.

Dog walking can be lucrative in the right area, but won't be steady income, some days busier then others, and in some places there is no demand for that sort of thing, not enough urban hippy types.

But you can look after your own too and become a paid housewife!

Looking at the amount charged I've often pondered shifting from engineering to childcare, but my quals probably wouldn't work for childcare either, and there's the being a bloke thing.

Paid housewife???? I think you might be missing the point of why I wanted to GO OUT to work- to escape the children and housework
I thank you for your efforts though

Fair point, but in lieu you can get long grinding hours and a lovely commute.

Yup. I've been home for nearly 7 years now and I'm thinking that I need to do something else at least part of the time. But I'll have to find something that either works around hubby's ludicrously long hours or that pays well enough to provide childcare for 3 kids and fund a second car. I had an unsuccessful interview at the library here, then I have another interview scheduled to work in a local Post Office part time. Not perfect, but who knows where these things could lead.

Before we came here I worked for a big insurance company, but that was never what I wanted to do. Since coming here, I've had a few part time retail jobs and then some babies.

I do have a degree, but it's a joint honours, which seems to confuse things a bit. I can't go on to further study without more concentration of one discipline or the other so I'm considering taking some money out of hubby's RRSP to go back and get myself up to speed for a Masters and go from there.

You have quite young children so a little while to go yet? Will you study online part time or something?

It really is quite difficult to come up with something that really grabs me... I'm hobby less (who has time eh?) so no ideas there.

I will try and get the nursing sorted, but I suspect the end result is that I go from having a career to having a job and there is a difference. Who knows! Will Canada be worth it?!

for the next year I'll see what I find online that interests me, but the diploma to top up is a year full time. Except by full time, they mean about 10 hours a week in class, so the rest I should be able to work around I hope! I was going to leave it until the youngest was in school, but she wasn't actually planned (middle starts school this year, I was supposed to be getting back to this now) and I can feel what's left of my brain turning into mush...

And no, I don't know if I could get fulfillment from just a job either. And I have no idea what my passion in life is, so I know where you're coming from!

Probably what my problem is, I just get jobs and I get bored with them so fast and get no fulfilment from them at all, mostly feel like they are a waste of time with no real benefit.

How are you with computers? There are many growth areas here: internet security, networking, software development, project management, etc.

People leaving that industry at a fast rate is what is creating the high demand. You're expected to work 80+ hours every week for some companies. Since they exempted IT Professionals from maximum hours and no overtime pay a shortage developed steadily to it's current levels of 106,000 and rising. I've left that industry but still get requests for telephone interviews up to 9.30pm by overworked managers who have no time to interview during the daytime. Plenty of work but there is a lifestyle choice to make too.

It depends on who you work for. I've been in IT for 29 years. I typically work 40 hours a week from my home office - not having to commute to work is a huge time and money saver. The hours are flexible so I'm able to run errands during the work day and make the time up later. I can walk the dog during breaks. So for me, there's been a big improvement in quality of life.