My Salary Barely Covers Childcare. I Found the Perfect Solution, But Someone Is Standing in My Way.

Pay Dirt Aug 26, 20266:00 AM Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by diego_cervo/Getty Images Plus. Pay Dirt is Slate’s money advice column. Have a question? Send it to Kristin and Ilyce here. (It’s anonymous!) Dear Pay Dirt, My husband lost his job a year-and-a-half ago (he was in a lucrative but volatile industry) while I was staying home with our son, then 15 months. Unfortunately, the next month I learned I was unexpectedly pregnant. I went back to work on a contract basis for a short time before my pregnancy became high risk. It took nine months before my husband could even find something that qualifies as “underemployment,” at less than half his former salary, which he started a week before the baby was born. The issue now is that I can’t return to work (in a very inflexible in-person