Sunday, January 20, 2008

The million dollar question

I've been thinking about paid work again (like, when the hell am I going to start send ing my CV to potential employers!). Now, I know that I'm really very fortunate to be in the position of being able to to just think about paid work, rather than having to do it out of necessity. But just bear with me.

Most of the people I know who have a kid TLM's age, have jobs - at least part time, if not full time. Those who are still full time parents, have two or more young kids (i.e. a kid TLM's age plus a sibling up to one year old). So, I'm the only parent I know who only has a single toddler/nearly preschooler, and doesn't also have a job.

So I'm wondering, am I only looking for work because I feel guilty about still being a SAHM?
And the answer is - partly, yes (it's also because I miss hanging out with "grow-mopes", which means grown-ups in TLM-ese).

So, if we won a million bucks in Lotto this weekend (which we won't, because we don't buy Lotto tickets), would I still want a paid job? Perhaps not, though I'd hire a part-time nanny anyway, and go lunching a lot.

So, if my bout of navel-gazing has brought me to one conclusion, it's that I'm still a hedonist.

6 comments:

Angela said...

I got that not working guilt before I got my job, but only because all of my friends with kids had to work. I do love my job but wish I only had to work part time. I would like a one day a week job. Too bad we need the money.
Maybe you could work one day a week and use that money to get a nanny for a few hours each day and go out and do grown up things. So you have a job, but not many hours. So that guilt won’t be there and then you have the nanny for a few hours so you could have some time to yourself.

Anonymous said...

The only advantage to working outside the home (as well as in) is hot coffee.

You get out of that make-coffee, leave-coffee-down, attend-to-child, find-coffee-2-hours-later, microwave-coffee, put-coffee-down and repeat.
(Three times for one cup is my record)

:)

Going back to work part-time is a great way to ease the shock to the system.

When you do go to update that CV, don't forget to list the new found skills Motherhood has given you.

I seem to remember that you worked in IT as well so feel free to give me a prod if you would like me to have a look at the CV for you.

x
E.

Violet said...

angela: yep, that would be ideal. It's just a matter of finding the right job really.

eliza f: thanks for the offer. I probably will be looking for library jobs and tech writing jobs but can pass my CV on to you to look at anyway?

aprilbapryll said...

I wish I could work part-time or volunteer. I'd go back to the library (where I volunteered for a year before I was too pregnant to do it on top of my regular job). Someday I'll be able to do what I want instead of what makes the money ... you're lucky to have the choice! No guilt necessary; I think most of us would be doing things differently if we were able!

No Milk Please said...

i think that i would like a paid job even if i won a million dollars, the question is, will anybody else want to hire me, specially since i wouldn't be invested in it. i think that ultimately, winning a million dollars will change the way we look at things and makes us do things we normally wouldn't do, such as be a beach bum...

Violet said...

aprilbapryll: It's an interesting game to play, figuring out what you'd do if money were no object. When I was single, my answer would have been "travel the world with my pick of male companions" or something like that.

no milk: that's a good point. Perhaps, if a person wanted to work even if they didn't need the money, then they might be more motivated to do it out of interest in the work itself, which would be a good selling point.