Life has evolved a bit in the Evolving Motherhood household in 2018.
After 10 years as a stay-at-home-mom with varying jobs on the side I recently took on a full-time outside of the home position. It was a long while coming. The itch started creeping up on me about a year ago as my youngest was nearing the end of her time in preschool. It felt like the time was nearing when I would have the space in my life to take on a full-time job that didn’t center around my children. Luke and I spent a lot of time talking about it. Of course a change like this would be a big change for the family and the benefits would need to outweigh the challenges.
I decided to take my time and start looking into possibilities. I planned to wait for the right thing to come along or make itself obvious to me. I didn’t want to rush into anything.
I absolutely know that perfect work-life balance as a mom is pretty near impossible, but I didn’t want to dive head first into something that would pull me from my much-loved years as a SAHM and into endlessly long hours and stressful work.
At the beginning of the school year I started working in a school as an administrative substitute. I loved it, however the hours were random and while they did match up pretty closely with my girls’ school hours the variability of subbing had its challenges. Then near the end of the year an opportunity presented itself and it was too lovely to ignore. The hours would require some shifting of schedules and duties in our house, life would of course be more full, and it would mean I would have to cut back my hours significantly at the school, but it was a great chance to jump back into a regularly scheduled full-time job. So for the last few months I’ve had a Monday through Friday gig. It has its challenges. Luke and I have really had to make some adjustments, but its going well. I enjoy working. I like to problem solve, interact with people, and contribute toward our family’s financial goals. We are lucky that Luke was able to adjust his work hours to make it possible for us to make this work.
Of course I have had to change expectations or cut some things from my life. I can’t have the same level of flexibility for everyone and everything around me that I once did, it isn’t possible. That said, life still has many of the components that it did before. I’m still an active volunteer at the kids’ school, the kids have the same extracurricular activities, Luke and I are making time for pursuits that are important to us like working out and reading, the house is clean and (mostly organized) and we’re cooking our family meals just like we have always. We’re still figuring things out, but we’re getting there.
It’s not a perfect balance, but I honestly feel more personally balanced than I did as a full time stay at home mom. I’m investing in myself while also investing in my family. I feel less restless and more calm. I didn’t realize how ready I was for something of my own. It was time to make a change. It was time to evolve and move forward.
