Considering a career as a pre-k teacher or a teacher assistant

To preface: I’m the oldest (by 12 years) of 5 children, I helped heavily with each of the kids. The two were born when I was 18 and 20, respectively. I dropped out of a 4 year due to multiple circumstances, one being the death of a parent and the other being a severe concussion, but during my breaks and once I came back home I babysat for multiple families. One of the kiddos had autism and I was the only person that their parents could find who he actually clicked with and would allow to stay with him, to this day that baby has my whole heart. My first job was also as a (non overnight) summer camp counselor and if Covid hadn’t of hit, I would’ve gone back for the next summer but everything was obviously put on a halt and summer camp was a non existent thing at least in our area.

I’ve been at my job for 3 years, in a management role for over a year, we recently moved states and I was able to move within the company, but my heart is no longer at the company I work for. Being away from my siblings as well as missing the kids I babysat for, I know I want to pursue something with children. Money isn’t so much an issue as I know teaching can be a job where the money just isn’t right and deserves better pay, my paycheck standardly is for groceries, non necessities, and anything with our dogs. If I can’t figure out what exactly I want to do for a job we’ve even considered me quitting and being unemployed for a little just so I can be happy in whatever I’m doing again since I’m at a point of complete drain. I just miss having those loud tiny humans around and feeling like I’m making even the smallest impact on their lives. My senior of high school, one of the campers I had was a freshman and every day he’d come up to me and talk to me about how much fun he had the summer I was at camp and how he loved anytime I was with his group, the first time I almost cried no joke.

We are also, again, out of state from our home state so the stipulations are different even for pre-k teachers here. There’s a 40 hour dhs class required which was not a thing in our home state, according to a pre-k teacher as well as a teacher assistant that I babysat for. CPR is obviously required, but that’s an easy feat, I’ve been through CPR classes numerous times. I do know it’s too late to start a job within the teaching field right now but considering my current circumstances, I’ve looked at applying to be a sub in the meantime to holding out and shooting for second semester since things come up and personally, I’ve seen teachers of all sorts not come back from Christmas break or leave partially through the semester.

Honestly I think I just need advice from anyone that’s been there. Any reasons to or not to. Everyone in my life have jumped with joy when I’ve brought the idea up, but sometimes strangers can help even more.