April 10, 2010
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in my gilded prison …
maybe not so as the title suggests, but still there are times when I feel like I am trapped by my own actions. I left my husband (or made him leave might be a better choice of words), for very VERY valid reasons, last summer. The same week, I was laid off from my job, the one that I was trying so very hard to keep when I left my marriage. Facing everything I was facing at that minute, losing my job was the least of my worries. I had bigger issues and I did not get laid off because I took a last minute vacay that week. I fully believe that my loss of work was already in progress while my private life was on another path in its own progress.
When I was laid off I knew that there was no way I would gain another job in the amount of time I needed to get a job and absolutely knew that I would not get the same rate of pay and flexibility that I was receiving. I had to take stock. And quickly. I only had so much money and had to, among other things happening, figure out how I was going to provide for me and my children. I was not able to talk to the man I had just left for other reasons and had no idea where he stood, other than the insults and threats hurled at me in a drunken rage on his part at times in the past. That was all I had to go on. So I looked at what my choices were and what was the one way to maximize my income. I chose to become a babysitter.
Oh. My. Golly golly goodness! I went from being an executive assistant with bookkeeping to a babysitter. Now that is not to say that I am not worthy of caring for children who are not my own and they do go home at the end of each day happy, healthy, and dead knackered if I can manage it. But there are times when I get the general impression some people look at what I am doing as having taken a step back, not forward in my life. But at the end of the day I am bringing home more income than I was with my Exec Asst job AND for the most part I have more flexibility than the last job did.
Flip side, I am with at least one of my children 24/7. I am no longer (Insane Mother of Three) the competent secretarial person, who could put together power point presentations in her sleep, conquer multi line switch boards in seconds and still find time to bake a banana bread for the lunch room. Well the lunch room is now my kitchen and my iPhone sometimes doesn’t stop ringing and I conquer school runs, at times up to 5 in a day! Now I am (Insane Mother of Three) Mom and Dayhome Mom.
I’m still growing in to this new job description.
Comments (2)
I love being a dayhome provider in Alberta. The wage-top off & babybonus are great & I love that the parents can get subsidy for childcare. You might really like the forum at http://parentsandproviders.myfreeforum.org/index.php and you should get added to the directory at http://parentsandproviders.com I really enjoy interacting with the other dayhome providers & I feel more like I’m part of a professional group rather than just being considered a babysitter.
@mezamashii - Thanks for the links! I actually have two women I consider my mentors that I see and converse with almost daily. Well during the work week. So I don’t feel alone in my new carreer.
I should probably make a post about how seriously I do take the job. I know the children go home at the end of the day, but I still feel passionately about them and when I have to introduce myself to anyone (other family member, teacher, outside person) I will refer to myself as (insert dayhome child)’s Dayhome Mom. when meeting prospective parents, I don’t try to be something I’m not. I have not gone to school to be a professional childminder. I went to school to be a professional administrator. But at the end of the day I sometimes feel just as passionately about my Dayhome kids, as I do my own.