May my wife quit her job while I am in Ch. 7?

[bkrpt]

My wife and I have discussed her leaving her current job to be a
stay-at-home mother for our 4 1/2 month old daughter. The reasoning in
favor of this is that there is minimal net financial benefit to her working
after paying for daycare and various related expenses, and we believe she is
capable of providing better care for our daughter than the daycare center can. I am also concerned that the stress my wife's job is putting on her is not healthy for her mental and physical well-being.

I am married, but filed Ch. 7 individually. I have 2-3 months until my discharge. Is this a change we can make at this time or must we wait until my bankruptcy is discharged?

Would the court construe this as unfavorably manipulating our ability to pay our debts? If a change such as this is made after the initial filing, but before discharge, do I need to submit an amendment?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Sara]

I quit my job during that time to be at home with our newborn and 2 year old, and my dh was hired into a better position during our bankruptcy. I talked to our lawyer at the time about it and she said that it was fine, and we still qualified. I had a lot of fears about that too. You have already had your hearing, right? I think that you should be okay on dw quitting her job.

[bkrpt]

Thanks, Sara.

I did some research on my own and found that US Code Title 11, Ch. 5, SubCh. II, Sec.521 (Debtor's Duties) appears to be the appropriate place for a rule on this, but it contains nothing to indicate that she could not proceed with voluntarily terminating her employment. I also searched through opinions of the Supreme Court and found nothing applicable.

I got a response back from my lawyer late yesterday and he confirmed that it would not be a problem for my wife to leave her job.

My 341 is in a few weeks, I just filed a week ago. I may have been a bit optimistic predicting my discharge date.