I love working! I love the thrill of "fire drills" and being stretched too thin, realizing that not a thing got done on my to-do list because I was too busy dealing with new higher priority tasks. I thoroughly enjoy what I do, but more than that, I love having a job, a place to come to every day, co-workers, and all that stuff. Sure, there are days I complain, and I usually hit snooze 3 or 4 times, depending on what time I absolutely need to arrive at work. But by the time I'm in the shower, I'm going through the plan for the day, reviewing my tasks, and prepping for meetings. At the end of the day, I can't wait to tell my husband all about what I did at work and funny co-worker stories and I appreciate his opinion on how to deal with sticky subjects. I like taxing my brain, and as much as I resist, I enjoy coming out of my comfort shell to do new things. I am amazed at how much I have grown in the last 5 years since graduating college, and I can't wait to see what my career path looks like in 10, 20, and 30 years.
I know if I stayed at home, I would deal with the same things - nothing on my to-do list would get done because of "fire drills" (hopefully not the kind that involve 911...), I would plan the day in the shower, and have lots to talk about when my husband got home. I think about staying home in the future, and I think I may consider it if we have another child and we've got lots going on and my day is broken into little chunks of time and full of scheduled activities. But, this time in my life, when my kids are young enough that it would be me and the girls all day, every day, is something I can't handle. Even on maternity leave, most of the days stretched too far and I was overdone at the end of the day. By the time my husband returned home, I was all too ready to thrust the kids at him and hide out for a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids!!! I'm just not that great at parenting. I'm not creative, I'm too impatient, and I'm too anal about stuff. I don't know what the future will bring. I would love my kids to have the security of having a parent at home all day, but I would also love to instill a great work ethic in them, and show my girls that being a girl doesn't mean you can't go far in your career.
If you stay home, what made you decide to stop working? Did you love your job? If you work, would you consider being a SAHM?
There are a lot of reasons I can't be a stay at home mom right now. At first, I thought I did NOT want to do it. This mostly stemmed out of my complete lack of confidence in myself. I see now that I could do it, and be good at it just like I'm good at my job, if I put the effort in. So if I had the chance? I'd jump on it. My kids are 10mos and 3.5yrs, and I feel like I've missed so much already. I don't want to miss any more than I have to, at this point.
ReplyDeleteIn a perfect world, I would have kept my job and worked part time and stayed at home part time. But I couldn't get that to work. So I stopped when the cost of daycare was almost as much as I was bringing home. But? I can't wait to go back out and do *something* again!
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