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| An old picture of the hospital. Patients call the new 6-story building the "nice" part of the hospital and always lament when they have to come to the "old" part of the hospital, where I work. |
I love working part time.
When I think back to when I just had one child, the prevailing emotional memory is B O R E D O M. Sure I loved my kid and found joy in taking care of her, but seriously, you can't tell me that playing Ele-fun is intellectually stimulating.
Then I got a job, a full-time job. And, I was no longer bored.
Full time is 3 12-hour shifts per week. Plus a staff meeting once a month, plus I do some monthly audits, plus whatever other training or meetings I have to go to. This was all manageable, kind of, until Lillian started 1st grade.
I sent an email to Mrs. B like the 3rd day of school and said that Lillian was having a really hard time focusing doing her homework (suggested time to spend on homework: 30 minutes. Time Lillian was taking: 1.5-2 hours) and did she have any suggestions.
She replied something like "Oh, it's just the beginning of school, she'll settle down and work it out."
A few days later, I got another email. "Yeah... so... Lillian is having a hard time..." This was while we were in Hawaii, and the next day was back-to-school night. My mother went and told Mrs. B to send home any work Lillian didn't complete in school. And she did.
Let's just say that I started to long for the days of 1.5 hours of homework each day. Tyler doesn't get home until 5 and then has to feed the kids, and then start homework and somehow have the kids in bed by 8 so they won't be dead the next day.
It went from manageable to overwhelming very quickly. I scaled back to 2 days a week and it's pretty wonderful. Turns out, subtracting 24 hours from my week helps me to strike the perfect balance between being busy but still having enough time to relax and read or watch season 2 of Sherlock on Netflix. I feel good about my work commitments and I feel like I get to spend a lot of time with my kids.
I always thought I'd be a stay-at-home mom.
3 comments:
Good. I'm glad you like working. I always feel like it is important for girls to have professional women to look up to.. I just don't believe I can be one of those women. However I am very proud that you are! And that you aren't super crazy or completely ignore your family. You are cool like that.
ps I'm boycotting reading your Hawaii posts because i'm jealous.
Amen to season 2 of Sherlock on Netflix. Just watched episode 1 last night. Best moment: 2.30 of this clip.
Amen to everything else you said, too. :)
Very cool post. And I am amazed that you have the energy to do extra stuff at work:) Every once a while, I wonder if I should sign up for more shifts, but somehow I just cant make myself do it. Maybe the memories of being pregnant with Eerika and working full time nights still haunts me:)
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