Working Moms

I got in a few discussions this weekend about being a mom and working at the same time. I figured I'd throw some of my opinions on "paper" for posterity or to provoke thoughts or whatever.

*Today a woman had her last day at the office. She quit to stay home as a full-time mom. I didn't know her well, but someone said she has 4 kids. I always wondered how people even manage to raise a lot of children while working. I feel for moms I know who have a lot of children by chance but know they have to work to make money.

*I don't know if there is any "Easy" age to leave kids in daycare. When they are little, they are so needy and their awake times are short, so getting home, you get the cranky and bedtime, not so much playtime. When they are toddlers, if you are home, you are always in search of things to do with them as they get so busy and explore. So getting out of the house is a good expansion of their world, be it a babysitter's house or daycare, or even another person in your home to expand their experiences. But it's also when they seem to catch every single germ that wanders by.

Then comes preschool where most people seek some kind of learning setting for their child but it gets so darn complicated with the drop-off and pickup, and expensive, so there's a lot to consider there. Throw in Kindergarten which is 5 days a week of 2-3 hours at a time to make it complex. Grade school is longer days, but who gets off of work by 2:30 every day unless you work AT the school your children attend? And then drop-offs for all ages don't even coincide with your work start time (mine don't.)

*So given all that, if you went to a potential employer at a 40 hour a week job and said "I want to work but I'll need all school holidays off, spring/winter break, summer vacation, and the ability to stay home whenever my kids are sick" you'd probably be shown to the door. I totally understand why a lot of people I know just take split shifts from their spouses and then whoever is not working watches the kids. Throw in an adult case of the flu and you might be screwed, but that could happen without kids as well, so one would hope you would be allowed sick days, paid or unpaid.

*I think being a working mom is a rough job. My personal difficulty is transitioning from the pace of work to the pace of home. And going from being at work where I put a pen down, I pick it up from the same location, and only deal with my own messes, to home where there are spills, messes and messy noses. It's remembering show and tell and what car to drive on what day and where to go.

*But I've been home too and the boredom/ repetitive factor of the mundane everyday activities is a lot as well to handle.

I guess sometimes I totally wonder how the heck some people do it. We have family who is mostly flexible, and we've had to learn to adjust to get things to work. So if you are a mom and you work and you have figured out how to make it work, hooray for you, it's no small accomplishment!