I've got a similar story. An outsider looking in, I've got a good Part 91 job that is very unique; 9 to 5, five days a week with lots of vacation potential.

I live near MCI and won't move (at least for a long time). My entire extended family is within 20 minutes of me, and when you have kids that's a luxury for all involved.

The down side to my job is that the flying is 20% of the job, and the other 80% accounts for 100% of the stress. I go on a one week vacation next week, and when I get back in the office I'll have 400 emails to read and address, and a stack of problems that will accumulate while I'm gone that I'll have to work overtime to get caught up on.

My lifestyle doesn't require that I make a ton of money, and I value quality time home with my kids more than making top dollar every month (my wife works and I have additional sources of income, which helps big time).

Like mine, your analysis will revolve around what you're trying to accomplish. If you need/want lots of money AND need/want lots of time at home, commuting will work against both of those requirements.

If I go the airline route, I know I'm going to commute and I accept that I'm going to give one extra night to the job on my own dime for each trip, and that's just part of the job.

The upside, as it appears to me at Southwest anyway, is that I have a little bit of control over how many trips I take and how many nights I'm away. If I can arrange a typical month to fly 4 trips for a total of 12 to 14 days of flying, that means I'm home 15 to 16 days a month even with a half day commute on one side of the trip or the other. And those are quality days off with no lingering stress carried over from one day to the next (other than how to get back to work). That beats the weekends I'm home now, along with the nights with my kids that I wasn't really the dad I want to be; my kids feel my stress too.

It helps knowing that I'd have numerous non-stops per day to/from MCI to MDW/DAL/DEN/HOU on SWA, with additional options on metal sporting different logos if necessary.

It's all about attitude. If you know you'll commute, make it part of the cost of having the job and do it anyway. Otherwise your attitude about it will stink and commuting will suck the life out of you.

-Slip