As a child I wanted to be two things: the first was a teacher and the second was a business woman. I toyed with both ideas for as long as I could remember. Business eventually won out, a degree in Human Resources more specifically. I have always been great with people, charismatic is a word my husband would use to describe me. I thought Human Resources was a good fit. I could train employees, help them deal with management, make a work place better, etc. Granted, I didn’t take into account the amount of payroll and benefit issues I would have to deal with through the years, but in college HR seemed like a great idea. Plus, I would most likely be able to wear a pin-striped suit with matching pumps and handbag, like my idols Murphy Brown and the ladies from Designing Women (a child of the 80′s I am). After 5 or 6 years of being in Human Resources in one form or another, I took a step back. I was not enjoying life or anything my career was offering me. I rarely left work feeling accomplished or satisfied and to make matters worse, I hated wearing business attire and heels everyday. (The matching purses, however, I did enjoy) So I decided to make a career change, with my husbands support. But change to what?
Cosmetology was the answer. I had always enjoyed, no, LOVED makeup and beauty products of all kinds. I was the one that did my friends hair and makeup for special occasions and I also was the one that would cut and color your hair from my dorm room in college. Albeit was with drug store brand hair color and craft shears I had lying around, but it was fun for all! So I went back to cosmetology school at the age of 26 and I loved it. I suddenly felt creative for the first time in my life. I will never forget the day we learned to actually cut hair. It was if the mother-ship was calling me home. The shears were just an extension of my hand, gliding thru my client’s hair with ease, creating such wonderful designs. Ah, I loved it and still do. If you are not in the hair field, the passion hair dressers have for their career may seem odd, but almost all of us have a deep passion for what we do. The connection you form with your clients is also pretty amazing. Not many other careers allow you to get that close to someone, enticing them to tell their deepest secrets, problems or joys. The things my clients have told me thru the years is fairly shocking and book worthy. I can honestly say I loved this career choice and almost always enjoyed every day I went to work.
Than came Nolan. We had tried to have children for several years and finally we were blessed with a beautiful, vivacious baby boy. The love I felt the moment he came into the world was indescribable. I enjoyed every moment of my 9 week maternity leave with him and bawled like a baby when I went back to work. After several weeks and months, I adjusted to being away from him and began loving my career again. Enter Luke. I took three months off after I had Luke and I think I enjoyed those three months more than I ever thought I could. I was surrounded everyday with my boys, my lively two-year old and my sweet baby, could life be any better? I fell in love with being at home and all that involved (okay maybe not the cleaning, but I’m trying to like the cleaning more … really I am.) When I went back to work it felt different from before. I still liked what I did, but my heart was heavier and I had a pull to be at home like never before. Opportunity knocked a month after going back. My amazing sitter was too overwhelmed with all of the kids she was watching and needed us to find someone else to watch the boys. Instant panic set in for me. How was I going to find someone to watch my kids the way she did? How could I afford a daycare center?
This is when my husband suggested I stay home. At first I didn’t think I could do it. I mean, I had loved it on maternity leave, but could I do it full-time? Well after analyzing numerous spreadsheets my husband had created, I was left with a decision to make: find a sitter and hope s/he could care for my children as well as the previous one, pay 3 times what we were at a daycare center, or stay home and raise our boys how we wanted them to be raised. I know it seems like it would have been an easy choice, but it wasn’t and I didn’t have a lot of time to dilly daly. I worried I was going to lose part of myself or go a little crazy with out adult contact, but I loved my boys and had wanted to be home. What to do, what to do? Than Luke smiled at me one morning before work and that smile did it. It was as if he said, “Mom I’m only little for a short time and I want to spend as much time with you as I can. Please stay home with me.” Bam … decision made. So that day, a week and a half ago, I went in and put my notice in at a job I loved. Once I did that, a weight lifted off my shoulders and I knew I had made the right choice.
Good luck boys, Momma’s coming home and home is where I shall stay … well for now. There’s no telling what my next career choice will be. But for right now, stay at home mom is the career for me.
