Our background: two engineers, married with a toddler. Dad works corporate 9 to 5 M-F, Mom works from home self-employed ~20 hrs/week during naps & preschool. Debt-free, paid off mortgage, retirement savings maxed out and both pulling 6-figure incomes (Mom's hourly rate several times higher than Dad's, but Dad's job has health benefits). Mom wants Dad to quit his job since he's miserable with the commute and working among intellectual underachievers with pressure to put in overtime. Savings accounts are plentiful, expenses are low, so surviving on just Mom's income would still leave plenty of room for a safety net. Dad's job is offering him a 30k bonus in 1.7 years for staying put at the company (golden handcuffs), Dad is counting down the days until the bonus is paid and he will quit his job. Mom can make that bonus in 3 months and doesn't want Dad to suffer the next few years in an unhappy work environment. Mom's job can be done from anywhere in the world, and Mom dreams of living elsewhere before toddler hits kindergarten (one idea was for Dad to return to grad school and finish his PhD just for fun, another was to travel to the national parks, and Mom & Dad both expressed interest in potentially returning to work as math/science teachers when toddler is older, to excite our minds and be part of a community). Mom is already in the FIRE mindset and "feels retired", Dad is still anxious/afraid of the future. Family budget is healthy, based off roughly 1/2 Dad's take-home pay (after maxing out his 401K) and all of Mom's pay goes towards maxing out her self-employed 401K and investing the rest after-tax, so savings rate is hovering around 70%.
Looking for opinions on whether we should stay put for the next 1.7 years and delay gratification even more, or say screw it and start the adventure NOW, with Mom continuing to work part-time as long as her job is enjoyable and until FIRE is 100% reached (a few easy years, Mom loves her job).
Posted here since in the real world, most of our family & friends assume Dad is the breadwinner and Mom is for all intents & purposes a SAHM, so it's difficult to find folks to discuss this with.
Anything we should consider with making this big decision?