Discuss the decision with your family , your wife needs to know that at the start your not going to a 9 to 5 job and home by 6 with weekends off, she will need to handle a few more things around the household than likely before get her prepared for it.

Finances will likely be strained when you start out , need to get budgets in place and STICK to them , you need to adjust as well ( do not buy all the TRUCK STOP crap you think you need ) as being away from the family is going to be tough.

For the kids same thing , they need to know its more than dad driving a BIG TRUCK , you will not be there for all the things as in the past. There will be missed anniversaries , school functions , ball games , birthdays , nothing worse than being 1000 miles from home when your needed and heading in the opposite direction.

The fact is that while electronics and social media has improved things. Drivers become what amounts to be an absentee parent. The one at home has to take the brunt of everything and its a huge stress on everyone involved.

Its very, very, very tough being an over the road driver and having a family or spouse at home. Especially with little ones. You ARE going to miss birthdays, holidays, events, funerals etc...

Don't fall for these recruiters telling you that you only stay out for a week or so either. Unless you are running a special route or every load originates from your house then this isn't going to happen. I would say 4-6 weeks is going to be your minimum time out there and usually when you come home its for 3-4 days. (as a company driver for a mega-carrier) It really takes at least 4-6 weeks to make yourself a good average pay check out there. If you have a couple bad weeks and a couple good weeks it balances things out so you are staying on top of your game and are making money. Otherwise you aren't going to make piddly $h##! Not to mention home time usually messes up your pay for three weeks! First week you slow down trying to get home, then you have the week you are home, then the week going out is slow trying to get back into the freight lanes and with the flow of things.

Now being from N.C. it maybe a little better for you to get home or stop by home more frequently because you are centrally located and in the midst of the freight lanes. I wouldn't expect it or plan on it though until you have experienced it. So if you plan to do this make sure you know that this is what to expect. Home time is the number one reason newbies quit within the first few months. It doesn't sound to bad on paper but man when you are in that truck for 6 weeks it seems like an eternity and then the 3 or 4 days you are home feel like an hour! When you do get home it can actually be more stressful because you are trying to catch up with two months of chores, visiting with family, taking care of business etc... and really all you want to do is sleep!

So just give it some serious thought. It cost a lot of money to get into this and will take a lot of time. At the very least though if you can make a year over the road and gain some experience then you can maybe land yourself more of a local gig. You can also maybe find a smaller company or something that allows you to drive turnarounds. This is where your load originates from home or close by, you head out deliver and grab a load coming back to do it all over again. Still a busy schedule but you are at least stopping by the house more often and not staying out a solid 6-8 weeks.

Good luck man...

expect the first year to be rough ....dif talk to your children daily and take advantage of hometime to make it special we usually do something granted more expensive now than when i started out everry time i am home....we also take away the importance of celebrating anything on specific days if i miss a birthday we celebrate it when i get back but i have allways worked two jobs and since i made more on hollidays allways worked them too so nothing new that being said i have been with my wife 16 years and have seven kids only been trucking six of them..after six months i woulld start looking at jb or the pumkin for dedicated acounts in your area i was averaging very good money on one in 07 and 08

When the dog runs and hides and the kids run out and bite you on the leg.... you know you've been gone too long..