Here's the quick breakdown.
Wife has the opportunity to get a nice promotion via her employer, a place she has worked for 15 years. We currently live and work in a metro area which we both love. But if she continues to live in this metro area, she will never get promoted. Her big promotion involves moving back to her hometown in a rural area where the HQ are located. This town is 90 miles from where we live.
The problem here is:
1. I can't stand her hometown. I lived there once and I don't want to move back. She is very passionate about getting this job.
2. If we up and relocate, I will have to give up my job and be forced to look in her hometown with not a lot of options for employment. This would involve me working a job I probably won't like and taking up to a $40K pay cut. Cost of living is cheaper, however. I've considered remote work for my role, however those remote roles are tough to come by and are usually the first to get cut if a company needs to slash the budget.
3. I just got promoted at work. Things are looking good for me at my job.
4. If we relocate, we will move our 6-year old son out his current school and away from his friends and our social group. This school (and school district) has been rated the best in entire state for 5 consecutive years. The public schools in her hometown are so-so.
We've considered her getting a cheap apartment and living there during the week and coming home on Fridays, which will keep our son in his current school and our home in the metro area. But her twice weekly commute is not ideal long term. However, in the long run she could make major money.
We've considered me getting an apartment in our current town to keep my job and our son here. She would move into a nice house near her new job and we would work out who visits who on the weekends.
So, what would you do? Anyone else in a work & family situation similar to this?