Friday 21 October 2011

SAHM No More - Return to Work

I was always hoping that I would be a stay at home mum, at least until my children started school. When pregnant with Joseph I thought that after 18 months or so we'd crack on with trying to conceive baby number 2 and I would happily be at home raising my children.

Once we decided not to have any more children, due to the risk of pre eclampsia and having another extremely premature baby, I threw myself into child-rearing and blogging. But it's turned out, its not quite enough. I get a bit lonely, once your baby is a toddler, and all your mum friends are back at work, the days can get long.

And, undoubtedly, being on one income is difficult. We've managed with some help along the way, an insurance pay out when Joseph was born, my redundancy pament, but it has become apparent that no one is going to throw a cheque my way unless I work for it.

So the plan was I would look for work I could do outside normal hours, so that my husband could pick up the childcare, and so that I oculd still be at home during the week. I decided I would go back to support work.

I started support work as a volunteer at the age of 15 in a nursing home. I have dipped in and out of care work throughout my working life. It annoys me that care work isn't more valued by the community, it isn't really considered a career, and it is not well paid. But I love it. It's instant gratification - you can see the difference you make instantly, it's often fun, and its rewarding. And I have no problem with bodily fluids and personal care tasks at all.

So I will now be working 18 hours a week, which is lovely. Enough to get me out of the house, and enough to bring in some extra money. The beauty is that we've done ok with our bills etc, this is money we can use to save, for holidays, and to buy nice things for Joseph. Is it really sad that I have decided what clothes I want to buy Joseph and for me, I am just planning to recycle my clothes from last year, the year before and the year before that!

I am so thrilled, that although our family time will take a bit of a hit, that I can still be there for Joseph during the week, and we can maintain our current arrangements with preschool.

Hopefully a win win all round.

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