This blog, for the most part, has been about the relationship that Jonah and I share, and about parenting or natural parenting in general. But I'd like to veer from that for a moment to focus on myself, the Mommy. I've been searching inward, and have made three major changes in my life. In this post, I'd like to talk about the change that will have the biggest impact on my family, and that has been the most pressing on my mind. It has happened so quickly that I haven't really had the chance to sit down and think much about its happening.
The last two weeks of my life has been a bit of a whirlwind. Three weeks ago, Daryl and I discussed whether or not I should go back to work part time. Our house in Cleveland isn't selling as quickly as we thought that it would, and we've had to come down on our listed price for it. We're losing a lot of money right now.
Times are definitely changing. I remember when it was easy to move into a new house. You put your house on the market, a few months later it's sold and you have the money for a down payment on a new house. At least that was my perception of it, as naive as it may be. People all around me seemed to be doing things in just this manner, and people even made a profit from buying and re-selling houses regularly. Now we are finding that there is a lot more to it than that, at least in today's housing market. It is very apparant that we will probably be losing more money than we can afford. I started noticing all of the ads for childcare and preschools in the local papers. "Fall is coming up." I told my husband "Enrollment season. If I'm going to apply for a job, now's the time to do it." Daycares tend to hire people in the fall, when their enrollment surges. People come back from summer vacations, their student babysitters had to go back to school, etc. Usually, centers are willing to hire more help if the enrollment is high enough, and sometimes they legally have to in order to meet the state ratio requirements.
My mother-in-law overheard me telling Daryl this, and she pointed out that the local science center is re-opening, and they are hiring people. I got on the computer and found out that they were hiring individuals to do science demonstrations and to help people with the exhibits. This sounded like a dream job to me. I'm an obvious science geek, and I have experience in performing science-as-entertainment. While in college, I worked for a company that performed educational science shows for schools all over Ohio.
I typed my resume, filled out the online application, took a deep breath and hit the "submit" button. I did it. I applied for my first job in nearly fourteen months. The next day, I got a phone call. I'd been accepted in for an interview! I was amazed at how quickly I got a response. The interview was just in a few days! I was told to prepare a five minute science demo to perform before the interview.
The day of my interview, I was so nervous. I wore my black dress suit, that I wore in high school when my debate team went to the state championships. I even wore heels and earings. When I left the house, I felt pretty snazzy, but when I got there I started to second guess my wardrobe choices. It seemed like everyone else there was young, just out of college or still in college. For the first time in my life, I truly felt old. Old and nervous. I clung to my cooler filled with dry ice as if it were my only friend in the world whom I just found out was dying. I waited my turn, thinking "do I really need to work? Do I really want to? Can I fit it into our lifestyle?"
They called my name and I collected my things and headed into the tiny room. Much smaller than I had expected. I had prepared a demonstration showing how to use dry ice to make bubbles. I had even built an apparatus specifically for this purpose. I walked through my presentation, putting in as much "wow" factor as I could. I threw everything at it, and in fact was still shaking from the adreneline half hour after the presentation was over.
I took my seat and looked at the two gentlemen I had been presenting to. They looked pleased, but it was hard to tell. They sat silent for a few moments, and then one of them finally said "That was probably the coolest I've seen all day today. Would you like to work for us?"
And before I knew it, I was heading into my part time job training, that started only three days ago. It is a big change, and we're all still adjusting. Although I get home at 2:00 in the afternoon, Jonah is napping at that time, and he's sleeping when I leave in the morning as well. My heart aches that for three days out of the week I don't see him until four or five o'clock. But, I also really love having the opportunity to instill the wonder of learning into so many young minds. I've mentioned before on this blog that teaching is a passion of mine. Jonah is a year old now, and is showing his independence. He doesn't need or even want me to be right there with him. He is in loving hands, with his grandmother during the few hours of the day that I am gone. She, of course, is estatic about being able to spend so much time with him. I suppose that I have been a "hoverer" and this has inadvertantly pushed other loved ones further away from him. I am looking at this as an opportunity for both Jonah and myself to spread our wings a little
I will most likely be posting more about switching to a part-time working mommy. It is pressing heavily on my mind these days.
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