Ranks of the Unemployed
Well, it's official. I have joined the ranks of the unemployed. (Background: For those of you reading this that are not Canadian, here we have 1 year paid maternity leave.) I've been on leave, and with Gwenyth's first birthday approaching, so is the date of my expected return to work. To be truthful, I've known all along that I didn't want to go back, or at least part of me didn't. But, I went through the motions of looking at my options, figuring out the costs incurred in my return to work, heck, I even wrote an Economics paper for school on the subject. And the sad (sort of) reality is that it's just not financially worthwhile for me to go back to my full time job at a local credit union. And the part of me that didn't want to return to my job, knows that right now, my children need me at home, and that I really do not want them being raised by a daycare facility, even a really good one. I feel at peace about quitting, but it was a bit sad to actually do it. I really enjoyed my position, and I had a really great supervisor. You know, one of those people who notice when you do something right, and comment on it. It was very satisfying for me, and I got a lot of personal value working somewhere that I was appreciated, and praised for a job well done.
My son Brian, who recently turned 4, told me that he is my job. I guess that saying "out of the mouths of babes" is there for a reason, since he's right. So, now I have to decide what to do with myself. I'm still attending school part-time in the evenings, and I do feel it's important for me to find some way of bringing some income into the household. I've narrowed it down to two basic options. Option #1: I can look for a part-time job, where I can work 10-12 hours per week, on evenings that I'm not at school or on weekends when my hubby is home with the kiddies. Option #2: I can open up my home to provide some childcare myself.
I'm still of two minds about which one is best. We're off on holidays starting the 20th of July, so I think I'll wait until we get back, and use the trip to think and pray about it all.
