In 2023, I made a decision that most people would consider crazy. I walked away from a successful corporate career so I could spend more time with my family and live life on our own terms.
This is the story of the moment I realized my career was costing me something far more valuable than a paycheck.
It was October of 2022. I was working as a Senior Team Lead for a software company where I had spent the previous 12 years of my career.
By most traditional standards, I was successful. I had climbed the corporate ladder and was earning a six-figure salary.
But I was completely stressed out and deeply unfulfilled.
On paper, I had flexibility. I worked from home most days. In reality, that simply meant the laptop opened while my coffee was still brewing in the morning and stayed open well after my family had finished dinner each night.
Work was always there.
And so was the guilt.
My two boys were 5 and 7 at the time. They would come over asking for my attention while I sat at the kitchen table buried in spreadsheets or jumping on another call.
I heard the same questions over and over again:
“Daddy, why do you have to work so much?”
“Daddy, when are you going to be done working?”
Those questions cut deeper every time.
The Question That Changed Everything
In early 2023, something shifted in my mindset.
After months of feeling the heartbreak of missing so much time with my family, I had a realization:
My kids were right.
Why did I have to work so much?
Like most families, we told ourselves the same story everyone tells. We had bills. A mortgage. Car payments. Groceries. The normal financial responsibilities of adult life.
But I started asking myself a harder question:
Was trading so much of my life for those things actually worth it?
My kids were still young enough to want to spend time with me. My wife and I were still young enough to fully enjoy our life together.
And yet, every week felt like it was disappearing.
Both of our fathers had worked for the same companies for decades in pursuit of stability and comfort for their families. One passed away shortly after retirement. The other reached retirement age but quickly became too old to fully enjoy the freedom he had worked his entire life to reach.
I couldn’t help but ask myself:
Was this really the American Dream?
Work endlessly. Wait for retirement. Hope there’s enough time left to enjoy life afterward.
And if we never questioned that path… how would we ever break the cycle?
Homeschooling Changed Our Perspective
Shortly after COVID, my wife and I made the decision to homeschool our boys.
I’ll admit — at first I was skeptical.
But it quickly became one of the best decisions we had ever made as a family.
It allowed our kids to learn in ways that felt natural and engaging. It allowed our family to spend more time together.
But it also revealed something else.
While I was tied to my laptop for most of the week, my wife was carrying the full weight of running our household and managing homeschooling.
Something had to change.
The Conversation That Changed Our Lives
One evening, after the kids had gone to bed, my wife and I sat down and talked about something that had been quietly sitting in the back of our minds.
What if I left my job?
My wife — who is undoubtedly the smarter half of our relationship — suggested we list the pros and cons.
On the pros side:
More time with our family.
The freedom to travel.
Less stress.
More time to focus on health.
The opportunity to live with more intention and purpose.
On the cons side:
The loss of a steady paycheck.
The loss of employer-provided health insurance.
And the biggest one of all:
Fear.
Fear of not doing the thing I had done for the past two decades to make a living.
Fear of stepping outside the traditional system.
Fear of not knowing exactly what would come next.
For my entire adult life, I had worked for someone else and received a guaranteed paycheck every two weeks. That level of predictability is hard to walk away from.
The lack of steady income is what keeps many people locked into situations they are unhappy with.
Fear creates hesitation.
Hesitation creates inaction.
And inaction keeps people stuck.
Overcoming that fear was one of the hardest things I have ever done.
But in hindsight, it was also one of the most rewarding.
The Moment I Walked Away
In July of 2023, just before my 44th birthday, I gave my two weeks notice.
My employer was shocked.
They didn’t think I would actually do it.
Like many companies, they assumed they had a reliable employee locked into the system — moving through performance reviews, incremental raises, and promotions that looked impressive on paper but did little to improve the overall quality of life.
When I closed my laptop for the last time, it felt like I had just given my family — and myself — a completely new lease on life.
What Changed After Leaving
For my boys, it meant having a dad who was truly present.
A dad who could:
Play catch in the backyard
Help with schoolwork
Build Legos
Go to the park
Coach their teams
Show them that there are more ways to live than simply following the default path
For my wife, it meant having a partner who was actually present in our home.
Someone who could cook dinner.
Do the dishes.
Give her the space to relax, read a book, or work in her garden.
And it meant something else too.
Our relationship came alive again.
More time together.
More laughter.
More day dates (which are wildly underrated).
And yes — more romance.
Sometimes something as simple as your husband cooking dinner or cleaning the house goes a long way for a wife and mother.
Reconnecting With What Matters
Personally, leaving my job allowed me to reconnect with the things that actually bring me joy.
I rediscovered my love for cooking.
More than twenty years after training as a chef, I finally had the time to perfect my bolognese, risotto, and New England clam chowder recipes.
I’ve been able to volunteer more in our community, often bringing my boys along so they can see the importance of helping others.
I can coach their sports teams without the looming dread of another stressful Monday morning.
Time itself feels different.
The weeks no longer feel like a grind.
Sleep comes easier when your mind isn’t racing through tomorrow’s meetings and deadlines.
The Experiences We’ve Been Able to Have
Since leaving my job, our family has experienced things we never would have been able to before.
We traveled to Southern California.
We visited a small lobstering island off the coast of Maine.
And we spent an entire month in Europe.
We visited my wife’s hometown in Poland so our boys could meet their cousins and connect with their heritage.
Then we traveled to Italy, where my family’s roots lie.
We explored cities and countryside by train, from Tuscany all the way to Sicily.
We climbed Mount Vesuvius.
Ate pizza in Naples.
Walked the walls of Lucca.
And ended our adventure with a week on the beaches of Cefalù eating arancini along the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Those are the moments that make up a life.
Not quarterly reports.
It Doesn’t Have to Be a Grind
Life doesn’t have to feel like an endless cycle of stress and obligation.
It doesn’t have to be a constant grind.
Life is simply too short not to be fully engaged in it.
When you’re able to move beyond the fear of “what comes next,” you realize something important:
There are many different ways to build a life.
And many of them are far more fulfilling than the one most of us were taught to follow.
Sincerely,
Kenny Vigeant
New here? Start with these posts
If this story resonates with you, you’re not alone. Our Happiest Life is where we share what we’re learning as we step away from the traditional path and build a life centered around family, curiosity, and meaningful experiences.
- Leaving School, Finding Home – Our journey into homeschooling and why it changed our family.
- How We Found Learning & Socialization Opportunities for Our Unschooling Family
- 10 Fun & Cozy Rainy Day Activities to Do With Your Kids
Thanks for being here and following along with our journey.
