Some advice for SaladinMD:
Not an anesthesiologist here, and not very likely to go into the field (considering), but I've been able to observe up close the lifestyle of two academic anesthesiologists. One of them is at work at 6 in the morning on non-OR days and goes home at 7 in the evening and he's nearly 80 yo; he had a divorce, doesn't spend much time with his current wife (she's also a high-power doc in her 70s), and owns a home that's currently worth millions in one of the best locations in the US. The other is middle aged, arrives at 8 on non-OR days and goes home at 4 to coach his daughter's soccer practice; he has a thriving marriage, spends lots of time with his two kids, but doesn't own his own home (he rents!) in an equally lucrative location as the 80 yo. Both do research, but they do it differently. The 80 yo is anesthetizing rats, operating the vaporizers, the gas chromatograph, etc. The 40-something yo delegates the studies to students, postdocs, and techs. The 80 yo doesn't visit his grandkids for the holidays. The 40-something yo takes a 1-2 wk vacation with the kids every month or other month - to Japan, Italy, NYC, etc. He's recently taken up glassblowing as a hobby and went to his son's school to show the kids how to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen. Completely different lifestyles and goals in life, no?
I think that anesthesia is a career that gives you a lot of versatility. However, I would worry about its status in the future, with the CRNAs, especially if the anesthesiologists ALL want tons of time off. Compensation is likely to take a hit and hours go up. It's also a procedural field, which makes me worry about taking off huge amounts of time (e.g. 6 months). You might have to fight hard to get that sort of gig, you'll take a big cut in pay (sounds like you're OK with that), but you have to consider how you will be an asset to the practice. If you only work 6 months a year, will the practice have to hire a CRNA for the other half? Will your wife be an anesthesiologist also who does the other 6 months? (in which case you can't share that time off).
I would suggest you consider going into something like IM or peds or EM which have the established model of hospitalist or ER shift work. That will allow you to "titrate" your time as you like pretty well. You can shift to locums from IM/peds/EM relatively easily. You can also pursue a fellowship out of IM or peds that can drastically boost your income (and hours), should you desire. I think these specialties will provide even more flexibility, given the right conditions, than anesthesia. As an example, I've heard of a couple (both pediatricians), where the husband works three days and spends the other four days of the week looking after the kids (home schooled) when the wife's at work, and the wife works another three days (and watches the kids when the husband is at work). Of course they take an income hit > ~50% of what they would earn if they both worked + overhead for 2 people for the salary of ~1, but they had different priorities, clearly.
