The thing I see come up time and time again on these kinds of threads is some form of taking a break (either just from work, I saw a suggestion to someone young

The thing I see come up time and time again on these kinds of threads is some form of taking a break (either just from work, I saw a suggestion to someone younger to go back to college, or completely time off, as it is in this case, or somewhere in between) so I feel that must have some merit at least. Other than that, I'm afraid I'm not of much help as I'm in a kind-of similar situation myself. Might be worth looking at what else is out there, not just related to dev but literally anything, even if it does mean less pay.