Juggling Family and Career

I can not think of anything that is more fulfilling than sitting with my child and watching her play.  I will admit that I have lost some of my desires to play Barbie’s and Legos, but I still love being near while she engages in a land of fantasy.  I sit here right now, in her room ,surrounded by a sea of plush friends, American girl dolls, plastic food, and a feather boa.   I sit and think, this is the life.  This is the life that I want forever. I want to always be with my child.

The truth is that most people cannot stay home with their children. Even people who enjoyed that luxury for years are now finding themselves looking to re-enter the workforce.  As a woman, unless we have a specialty, regardless of our level of education, we sometimes have problems re-entering the workforce.

Do you remember the days when just having a college degree would get you a job?  Today that same theory does not hold.  On an average, there are almost 5 million people who are out of work.  FIVE MILLION people, that is a very intimidating number when you are looking for a job to just help make ends meet.

So if you have been a stay at home mother for five to ten years, where does that leave you?   Can you hop on Monster and land a job within a few weeks?  And what about the military spouse who’s resume looks a little suspicious because she has moved every 3 years and on paper looks a bit of a job hopper?  What about these people? How do they fair in a job market where there are 5 million people looking for jobs.

A good friend of mine said that you need to learn to be resourceful and work for yourself.  So let’s explore that option.  Let’s say that I have a brilliant idea that could help me be a stay at home mother and get to spend many of these days watching my child dance to the lazy song?  A business takes money to get started and banks are not really lending, so that is an option, while brilliant, might not work out as I would like.  Before you decide this is all about gloom, it is not.  There are jobs that are out there, it is just not as easy to come by the extra income as it was in the past.   Also, you might not go back into the work force making as much as you did or even in the industry that you have trained.

Once you get back to work, you have more things to juggle.  You will now have to juggle early mornings to the babysitter, career demands and chores, that you used to have all day to do, are now compacted into a few hours in the evening and on the weekend.  It can take a toll on you physically and emotionally.  Careers and a child can be a hard combination to juggle when you are trying to provide a middle class life style for your family.