Job Interrupted
Upon revamping both of my websites, I have decided to go back and review blog posts from my original blog and organize them in where they belong. I happened upon this post, my first one and this speak volumes to the struggle of so many working parents, I found it worthy sharing on the six year anniversary of when my blogging started.
I'm trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. Yes, this common phrase can seem light hearted and has been my response to dealing with being on the wrong end of a massive corporate layoff. The easy answer is to just find another job in either the industry I have been working for almost 13 years. The reality is that I am about to be an unemployed single mom and I am trying not to take this change lightly. About a month ago, I picked my daughter up from preschool and she asked a very poignant question, "Mommy, whose job is more important, yours or Daddy's?" Wow, how does a 5 year old come up with something so loaded? I went with a safe response and explained what each of us does for work and explained that our jobs were different, so it wasn't really a matter of whose job is more important. This innocent question has stuck with me as she will be entering kindergarten in the fall and there will be continued demands both during and after school. I grew up with divorced parents who both worked in factories and quite honestly didn't make it to school holiday events, go to open house, help with homework, or go on field trips. I distinctly remember one holiday party in elementary school when the day after, one of the kids brought a picture for me to share with my parents since they couldn't make it. Yes, the other kid's parents felt so bad I was the only one without a parent there that they took a picture for me to show my parents what they missed. I still have that picture, as I figured if the event was that important to my parents, at least one of them would have tried to attend. I likely won't be able to meet every request I would like to as my little one starts school, but when I explain that I had to work, will she still see my job as important? Will I? I do believe that it is important to be able to respond with "yes." Therefore, I don't take this whole layoff as a time to do just the average response, but to remember what was important when I left teaching and went into pharmaceutical sales. So if this seems like it's weighing incredibly heavy on me many days, there's a darn good reason for that. I believe God is providing an opportunity to really pray through this transition and be open to the possibilities. There simply are factors that are important in answering the question 'what do I want to be when I grow up.'
