I get comments about working fulltime and having 5 kids all the time. Trust me I don't love to work, it's a necessity if we want to pay our bills and keep our modest home to live in. I'm also not a perfect mother, but I do try to do my best.
One thing we do try to do is make a menu. It helps tremendously if you have a menu to shop by so nothing goes to waste. So, we try to make a list of about 5 things for the next several days that consist of a couple of fairly simple to make meals (aka quick) and some more extensive ones. This keeps us out of the boring rut we sometimes get into leaving no one wanting to eat because dinner is BORING. Plus, before work we can have something thawing so it's that much easier to start dinner when you walk in the door after work. Of course, during the week this is Brian's job since he is home the earliest. I take the menu on the weekends. This past week we had sausage/broccoli pasta, enchilada casserole, teriyaki chicken, parmesan chicken and a couple of other yummy meals. We like to load them with miscellaneous veggies and the kids eat them right up.....in the recipe or not.
Another thing I do is my job at work. While there is something to be said about the stress lack of money can cause, there is also stress in stressful jobs that no matter how much you try not to bring it home you do....just because you may hate your job. I don't love my job as in I'd rather not work...duh, but I don't hate my job. I'm appreciated and though because of who my employer is I can't be compensated with monetary rewards my supervisor openly appreciates me, trusts me and gives me job satisfaction with all of this. There was another job that was possibly going to be coming up soon (hasn't yet) that the person over it has been talking with me about me looking into it. I really had seriously considered it because it was working with something I currently do and one of my favorite pieces of my job. I thought that would be perfect; a huge raise and doing more of what I enjoy if I have to be there anyways. I recently was put on a project with some folks in that area and realized that it's not what I thought. Because of the way they run things it wouldn't be working with what I thought and I think there would definitely be personality conflicts. After a remark that was made this week by a potential coworker I realized it's not worth that. It's not worth hating who I work with, possibly getting belittled on a daily basis when I do know what I'm doing and allowing someone else to possibly take credit for my work. I may not have money left after paying our bills, but at least I don't have extra headache and stress. Money's overrated when it brings on extra stress.
So, yeah, moms CAN work and be present for their kids, but if you don't make the best use of your time, organize and prioritize (just like at work) and keep a job that minimizes stress, not maximizes it, you may not enjoy your life too much. Life has it's ups and downs, but I do enjoy it because I enjoy my kids and I don't know that I would if I had all this stress I was bringing home and flying around by the seat of my pants.
It's all good....even when it's not. Keep telling yourself on bad kids days...."as long as we have each other and our health". I remind myself of this a lot.
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