As to starting an apprenticeship. You may have to step back for a bit and I know that is hard financially, especially with a family. At 30 you are still young enough to work hard but have enough maturity to not bring all the problems to the table that those in their late teens and early twenties bring. A good employer would see the value in that and there might be a possibility of fast tracking. Sometimes it is better to go backwards to get on a better road.It is definitely soul sucking. There's always something to improve which means nothing will ever be good enough. I'm in a high volume store too so it just adds to the stress. If I got fired tomorrow I'd walk out of there with a smile. I may end up picking up a trade and going back to school but starting an apprenticeship at 30 years old just seems like going backwards. I'm fairly certain there's no future growth for me at this company so Ive been looking for a way out for a while now.
as counterintuitive as this seems, working a part time job along with a new trade oriented job might be a solution to the cash flow issue, on a temporary basis. A good server at a busy restaurant can make enough working a couple of shifts a week To help the family finances.
If the issue you are having with taking a step back is “what will people think”? you need to put that out of your head. If your wife is on board, nobody else’s opinion matters.
Another oddity I saw in the industry you are in is that pay raises never kept up with the market rate. If you left where you are on good terms, you could almost certainly go back to that company or a similar one 6 months later and do it at a higher rate of pay. They are always hiring, because as we know, the job sucks.