Back to work

I always envisioned that when I had children I would be a stay-at-home mom and that would be all the work that I would do, at least until all my children were in school. Then I would think about working part-time during the day while my kids were in school, but only as long as it left plenty of time for me to be a mom, wife and homemaker first.

After Jacob was born, Justin and I decided together that I would teach a class a couple nights a week just so that we could have that extra income. My fall semester income we typically used to buy Christmas gifts for our families and over the one spring semester I worked we actually used the money I made to do our frozen embryo transfer in the summer 2010.

But as time went on after the twins were born and we were dealing with all the problems and difficulties that Jacob had, I kept feeling more and more like I NEEDED to get out of the house on a regular basis. I NEEDED breaks from my children in order to stay sane when I cared for them. I felt myself sinking further and further into a depression and I knew something had to change.

As we approached the twins 2nd birthday (Feb 2013) Justin and I made the decision that I would go back to work teaching at the community college in the fall. Only I wouldn't teach at night as I had done after Jacob was born, I would teach during the day and we would find childcare for the kids. It was a scary decision to make, but we knew it was best for me and the kids for me to get a little vacation from them everyday called "work".

I contacted the math department chair at the community college and set everything in motion to be re-hired. We weren't sure what exactly we would do about childcare and we decided that we really wouldn't be able to decide what to do until I knew when I would be teaching each day. We also realized that a large chunk of any income I made would go to pay for childcare, but I felt desperate to change my situation and knew that I wasn't going back to work for the money, but for my sanity.

On my birthday last year I got a call from Jacob's teacher letting me know that Jacob would no longer only go to school in the afternoons starting in the fall, but he would go all day as part of a special program they were doing. My first thought was how great that was because now I would only have to find childcare for the twins.

But the next day when I got my teaching assignment for the fall, doubt and worry started to creep in. I would be teaching on Tuesday and Thursday (as requested), and my first class would be at 8:30 in the morning. I had also requested the early start time, but that was because I thought that Jacob would only be going to school in the afternoon. All day school for Jacob meant a bus would pick him up at home around 8am, but maybe not until 8:15. How in the world would I be able to get Jacob on his bus, take the twins somewhere to be watched and make to my class on time? For most of that day I stressed BIG time about what I would do and how would I find someone to watch my kids.

But the next day instead of stress I felt peace. And I felt like I knew exactly who would be caring for the twins and able to make sure Jacob got off to school okay. I hadn't asked her yet, but I felt a certainty that everything would be fine. I was nervous to approach my friend with the offer an employment, because I didn't want to offend her or damage our friendship but I felt so comforted that she was the right answer.

As soon as I mentioned it to her she said she would be happy to watch my kids! She had been looking for a way to make extra money, but she was only available a few days a week (which happened to be the days I would be teaching) and she couldn't find anything that would pay her enough to make it worth it to her. Over the next few days everything was settled and we were both looking forward to our new schedules in the fall!