KEN JOHNSON: HARDER TIMES AHEAD?
AGE
30
FAMILY
Wife at home; four young children
JOB
Owns Johnson Enterprises, a small landscaping company, Huntsville, Ala.
HOW THINGS WORK
Johnson sets his own hours, typically working 6 a.m. to noon in the summer and 6 a.m. until 4 p.m. in spring and fall. The kids help him with work, driving with him on sales calls and helping to sell pumpkins, watermelons, and other produce from the family's gardens. And within reason, he can come home whenever he wants to be with my kids. In the fall, though, he's planning to start working nights at a factory. Between the two jobs, he'd work 10 p.m. to 3 p.m., come home for a few hours when the kids get back from school, then sleep before starting his workday again.
HIS TAKE
"The kids and I have a lot of time together, and I spend as much free time as I can with them. My belief is you have to spend time with your children. When I'm working on my own, no one's telling me I can't take off if I want to. Even though they might be good, I'd turn down a lot of jobs to spend time with my kids -- and I have turned down jobs.
"I wouldn't want both my wife and I to be working. That would lead to tension at home because the woman wants to go out and work. Someone's got to be there with the kids, someone's got to be there when a kid has a runny nose and has to go to the doctor -- it's my wife, and she knows her job. If both parents are working, the kids don't see either. Someone has to be home. But if my wife would want to work, I'd stay home. I'd be happy with that!"
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