I get a few "how to raise your baby" e-newsletters in my inbox with links to one of the millions of mommy blogs out there. Normally I don't read them, assuming they are mostly, if not all, the same. Today, though, one headline jumped out at me: "A Stay at Home Mom's Regret." The blog post was about a woman who left her job as a journalist to care for her kids and her ailing father while her husband kept his highly demanding job. She was starting to think that she'd never get back to the same place in her career where she left off three years prior. There was a statistic in the article about how the average stay at home mom gives up $1 million in salary and benefits during her time away from her career. (What the hell does the average woman do for a living?) Anyway, it got me thinking about the money I'm not earning.
I love what I'm doing now, and I can't imagine paying someone else to take care of E, but I often wonder what it will be like for me to try to go back to work one day. I wasn't exactly married to my former job or even my so-called career path. I worked in public relations for a nonprofit. While it was nice to work promoting a good cause (as opposed to, say, Velveeta or some other consumable), I don't have a strong urge to go back to that. Nor do I want to attempt to work in an agency or corporate PR setting. After interviewing with a few, I'm not sure I have the passion for it. I guess you could say I don't have a great passion for PR anymore. I liked the challenge of earning the attention of a reporter, and I certainly enjoyed the writing aspect of it. The list of pros, however, stops right about there for me.
This blog post also mentioned how one should continue to either freelance or consult or somehow stay connected with the industry while on "leave." I've been doing some probono work for a local nonprofit, and attending the occasional networking event, but what do I do if I don't generally like my industry? I guess between diaper changes and washing my kitchen floor (again), I should come up with an industry I actually care for.
This is something I fret about as well...
ReplyDeleteGiven the amount of money I made as a teacher, the length of the workday (and night) and the amount we would pay for childcare for three kids, my current situation makes the most sense, but it's still stressful every time the new school year rolls around, and I think, "Is this the year? Should I start looking now?"
That said, I have had many career-related surprises and new directions that would not have opened up for me had I not been staying at home. So you never know...and volunteering at the BAC is exactly how my new options opened up for me, so you're already in the right direction! :)
I think B. is right on, B. ;-) Volunteering your skills is a great thing - especially if it's not getting exploited too much, allowing you a good balance. You never know what could strike your fancy down the road! Better to be exploring just a bit in your "leave" time when you're not on a treadmill, eh?
ReplyDeleteP.S. Your MM photo makes me want to sew up some more dresses - maybe vintage, even! I have a couple doozy patterns from Grandma's stash...
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