Career Advice/Pursuing Child Life

Hi! I'm feeling a little lost career-wise and am looking for advice on potentially pursuing child life. For some context, I'm 23 with a BS in Child Development, and 3 associate's degrees in ECE, Child Development, and Liberal Arts. Most of my experience has been at college-associated lab schools/child care centers, with infants, toddlers, and early preschool. I've always known that I wanted to work with children, but my particular path has changed a few times over the years. I went from thinking I wanted to pursue K-12, to realizing how much I enjoyed small group sizes and fostering closer relationships with children in childcare.

While pursuing my BS, I took a class taught by a CCLS, which was my first time being introduced to the field of child life. I really think it is something I would enjoy doing. I also volunteered at my local hospital as a playroom volunteer in PEDS under a couple of CCLSs (I completed about 150 hours total). Through talking to professors/guest speakers, and doing my own research, I realized that with potentially having to get a Master's to be a competitive candidate, and with having to be okay with moving for both an internship and for job opportunities, it is somewhat of a large sacrifice.

I recently began my first full-time position as a Head Start Teacher, and it is pretty different from my other experiences thus far. I've realized that my experiences at lab schools where there were so many adults in a classroom are definitely not the norm compared to large group care in most places. Though I know I could continue doing this job for a while, I'm worried about burnout long term and continuing to stay passionate for the length of a whole career. Child life has continued to be on my mind, and I don't want to regret not pursuing it in the future. I'm also currently in a position where moving is not as unattainable as it once was.

All of this to say that I am now weighing my options with child life. After researching all of the requirements, it seems I would only need to complete two courses in order to have the 10 specific ones, since my BS covered most of the units. I would most likely take these through UCSB PaCE. I just don't know how competitive of a candidate I would be without a Master's.

On the other hand, I am located near Auburn University in AL, which has an MS program in Child Life, and from what I gathered, this would include a local practicum and affiliation in getting an internship. My husband recently got out of the military and is 100% disabled, meaning that I would be able to use Chapter 35 dependent benefits to get a stipend each month that would most likely cover much of the degree.

I am struggling with deciding if I should go down one of these two paths. The two courses would of course take much less time and allow me to apply for an internship sooner. Given that I would not have to worry about debt, it also kind of seems like a no-brainer to get an advanced degree, but I do have concerns about getting a child-life specific Masters, since I don't actually have that much hands-on experience with the field.

Another concern I have is that I want to be able to stay home for a handful of years when it comes time for having children. I am worried about settling down in a place for a specific job opportunity, leaving that job, and then not having one to come back to afterwards.

I realize that I am very privileged when it comes to my position in life compared to others pursuing this field. I do not and will not have any student debt in the future, am in a position to move without it affecting me in a great financial way, and will be in a place in the future in which I won't have to afford child care. I completely understand why people would struggle with this decision when those factors are unusual for many.

I apologize for the long post, but I really want to gain some perspective from others who are currently in or are working towards a career in this field. I am passionate about working with children, but at the same time, don't want to make mistakes in choosing my path and ending up in a career that I am not fit for.

TLDR: Should I pursue child life or just stay in the field of ECE/childcare? If I pursue child life, would it be more worth it to go for my Master's or just take the 2 courses remaining for me to be qualified educationally? And how forgiving would the field be when it comes to taking breaks from working/pursuing new positions after taking a break for family life?

Thank you in advance!!