Anyway, this really hit home: “they just don’t like what they do and rather than looking for a way to address the situation or find a new job, as a man would have to do, they drop out.”

I DID THIS. My son is 18 months, and I’m on the verge of going back to work. I think. But I’m ambivalent…I know some of my reasons for ambivalence are genuine, and some are foolish. I’ve enjoyed not having to face the stinking heap of my “career” for the last 18 months. But you know, I’ve lost a lot of self-respect in the process, too. It isn’t very brave or adult to run away. But she’s right. That’s exactly what I did.

That said, yeah, she can certainly be abrasive! I saw her give an interview around the time the book came out, and I wanted to reach through the TV and smack her upside the head. Not because I disagreed with (all of) what she said. But because she had this self-righteous smirk on her face the entire time. She just knew she was so right. Puh-leeze.

But despite all that, this post has got me thinking about the book again. I need a boost to send me back to the job hunt…

As a result, I committed very early on to finding family-friendly work I loved that could financially support me and my family; like health insurance, it’s something I would never go without. This turned out to be more than just a nice bonus when my husband was unemployed for almost two years, and boy, did that introduce me to the business end of overburdening the working spouse; the stress was unbelievable. I find, however, that people who have not had similar experiences find my defensive posture negative and frightening. Or they call it unrealistic, which is almost funny (how can it be unrealistic if it actually happened?). I’ve concluded that it is the kind of issue that many people only really understand when they have had similar experiences. In that sense perhaps it is something like infertility.

So anyway, I don’t have any second thoughts about working, although it is a struggle some days. But who doesn’t struggle some in life? I admit I do get annoyed sometimes by people who refer to staying home with their children as their “job”. In my book, a job is something you get paid to do because you wouldn’t be doing it otherwise; spending time with my child is a joy, not a job, and being able to do it full-time is a privilege that not many people can afford. I’m not proud of it, but I’ve rolled my eyes on occasion for just that reason when I’ve heard people say, “Staying home with my kids is my job”.

I agree with Carla Hinkle completely, though. Everyone I know who works full time (or even part time) with 2 kids either has a stay at home parent or house help (nanny, housekeeper, etc.)

Keeping up with the dishes, the laundry, balancing the checkbook, grocery shopping, cooking, and the picking up, not to mention all of the preschool co-op crap, is a full-time job. When Mimi was a baby, we used to do fun things during her nap. Now, when we have a moment of quiet, it is a race to get something done (and it is never me )