A couple of weird things have come up in the last 24 hours: first, I got an email asking if I’d accept advertising on this site. It’s not something I’ve ever really considered, because I didn’t think that I had enough readers to warrant any advertisers’ interest. But hey, they asked, and I could really use that $2 a year or whatever piddly amount of web traffic I bring in. I wrote the person back, asking exactly what the content of the advertisements would be, because while I’m totally open to the idea of whoring my blog for my own personal financial gain, I don’t want to end up with anything obnoxious and/or offensive here.
Second, I got an email from a recruiter who happened to have an old copy of my resume. The job he’s looking to fill is right up my alley, and the salary and benefits are awesome. It sounds way better than what I was doing before. The only catch is that it’s full-time, which wasn’t what I had in mind. I was really planning on going for something either part-time, or that at least had the option to work from home part-time. So now I’m kicking this idea around, trying to figure out if this is what I want. I don’t like the idea of Cate being in daycare full-time, mostly because I think I’d miss her like crazy. But at the same time, this job opportunity could put us in a place financially where we could move to a new house sooner than our current plan, and while the commute would suck for now, the job is located in the area that I want to move to. So it could turn out to be really good. Or I could do it for a month, hate it, want to quit and feel like an idiot for going through the whole process of interviewing with this company and finding a suitable daycare facility. Argh, dilemmas…
Is it a contract position, or it a permanent position? If it’s contract, you could always look at it as a great big experiment and see what happens, since you know it’d be for a set amount of time.
Same with a permanent job, actually. Lots of women go back to work, realize it’s not for them, and then leave the job.
I know you don’t know me from a hole in the wall, but I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now, and totally identifying with all of your posts re: the parenting experience.
My son will be two in June, and I went back to work full time when he was 8 weeks old. It was a really hard thing to do, but at the same time I felt like I was getting away with something… Going to the bathroom ALONE? Eating lunch with TWO HANDS? And getting paid for it all? It really did feel like a vacation – and the thrill of it hasn’t worn off.
That’s not to say that I don’t yearn for the minute that I get to daycare and see his smiling face – but it does make that moment more special. I think that we both enjoy time away from each other, and we both look forward to meeting again in the afternoon.
I know that each person’s experience is different, but just wanted to let you know that it’s not as hard as it seems like it will be, and there are perks to having some of your indepence back.