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I’m sorry to hear about your experiences. It might not be the nicest thing to hear, but I would recommend getting a job in any field that can support you and your family, and looking for a dev job afterwards. I’ve had trouble finding a job too and that’s what I would do if money was tight.

Go get a job. Worst case scenario you can come back to this in 6 months.

Get a PhD, or get a high paying job and do interesting stuff of weekends, or do your "self-directed" work as a pauper with option to do a startup or open source project that gets you a job later.

I would say don't give up your day job but you already have :/

Is getting a full time job an option? You seem to have marketable skills.

Maybe retrain as a teacher and do private tuition in the mean time? The working hours will be better, it's rewarding work (not financially), probably quite a secure job and you can work on ad hoc projects/consulting on the side.

every year you don't go to school makes it much harder to go back. if you don't have a degree and varied training - and the demonstrated ability to learn - you'll get harder to employ as time goes on.sounds like a great opportunity, but i encourage you to think long term. you've just been validated, in part, but i worry that the kind of work you're doing will be equivalent to a factory job in a couple of decades, and you'll be in a similar position for job prospects.

Quit your job and start a co-op I guess.

You have the chance to learn/study while you are young. If you miss that now you'll regret it later.If you are not sure take a shitty job for a while and reconsider later.To get a decent job (programming or whatever) you need some skill. Take the time to develop your skills.

Sure. Get a job at an insurance or a bank