Mendolonium

Y’all gave me plenty of material such that I don’t have to blog about poo, but as it turns out, I have a little bit of poo to talk about today.  As Thomas was doing his “business” this morning, he called out, “Do you want to see my poop?”  “No”, I replied emphatically.  “Are you sure?  It’s in the shape of a T-rex!” Thomas encouraged me enthusiastically.  All I could think to say was, “I don’t care if your poop looks like the Eiffel tower kid, I don’t want to see it.”

I have been struggling lately with whether or not to return to work full-time.  I’ve worked part-time, three days a week, since I returned to work in April 2007 after Thomas’ birth.  The basic dilemma is this:   In working part-time my children get to spend more time with me, than apart from me.  I have time to enjoy them and a fulfilling, slower paced life outside of work.  I rarely have to set an alarm clock, even on work days.  I have time to bake an angel food cake, time to take a nap while the boys sleep, time to prune the roses and then to stop and smell them (just a sample of today).   But in working part-time I also give up or am turned away from interesting assignments at work, I haven’t been promoted in line with my peers, and we only make enough money to get by – there’s no saving for college or for retirement or that used minivan we covet.

But I’m not struggling anymore.  Two weeks ago, on the airplane to an interview for a new job, soaring at 30-something thousand feet, perhaps above my old home state of Nebraska, I had an epiphany.  I am not going back to work full-time right now…not for a long time, maybe not ever.  I had been seeing my life in terms of an absolute choice between options A and B.  A:  work part-time at my current job, feel bored and held-back at work, but be happy in my personal and family life.  B:  work full-time at a new exciting job, but have much less time for my other enjoyments, especially my children.  What I realized is that there is option C:  lay on my cards on the table at my current job, let them know what I want to do and see if I can get to where I want to go from here.  Either I will make my job work for me on a part-time basis or I will find one that will.  I’ll apply for jobs that are full-time and if I am offered a job, I  will negotiate a part-time schedule or decline the offer.

And now that I have made the decision to stay part-time I am so much happier.  I am forging new opportunities for interesting projects and advancement at work.  I am more at peace at home.  Today was  such a good day.  Nothing extraordinary, but a day that couldn’t have been if I worked full-time.  I stayed in my pajamas until noon and the kids stayed in their sleepers until their nighttime bath.  We ate mac and cheese with homegrown carrots for lunch.  I got to hear about dino shaped poop.  The boys took simultaneous naps during which I wrapped Christmas presents, pruned the roses, and ate a brownie sundae.  We sang REM and tunes from “The Sound of Music” at the top of our lungs.   Both ovens were working roasting a pumpkin and baking an angel food cake.  It was a good day.  And the best part of the day was that I got to watch Henry enjoy his first full day as a crawling baby.   If had been at work I would have missed it and no promotion, no amount of money could ever compensate for that.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 1:34 am and is filed under So What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?, Theodore, Thomas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.