Unemployed parents

As more and more dads are put out of work in this economy, I’ve been watching my friends and their laid-off husbands try to make ends meet.

Many of the men are willing to take whatever job they can get that will keep food on the table. In other families, moms are going back to work to be the breadwinner, even if they’ve been out of the workforce for years while raising kids.

But I’ve also seen an interesting phenomenon in some of the families that I know. The dads who have been laid off are using their “time off to find that dream career they’ve always wanted. They won’t settle for just anything that earns a paycheck or a job they think is beneath them. They’re holding out for the exact job they want, and collecting unemployment until that dream job lands in their lap.

I know if my husband were sitting around waiting for his dream job while I was signing up for Medicaid, I’d be more than a little upset. Or I’d tell him to watch our daughter while I went back to work full time.

What do you think — should dads and moms who have been laid off be picky about their job choice? Or should they just be grateful to take any job that will pay the bills?

Have you and your family had to face this question? What did you decide?