Today I Found a Job

Today, against the tide of a declining economy, I found a job on Long Island. No matter the economy, even if America is in a recession, there will still be people working; it depends on how a business allocates its resources and whether or not you are fortunate to have the desirable skills of the moment. I am returning to my previous profession in IT after 6 years of child rearing and domestic responsibility. I am not a programmer or developer or engineer but I work in business intelligence documenting and evaluating real time use of eCommerce applications and end user functionality. This is a necessary and vital metric for companies that do a lot of business of the web.

I am looking forward to starting my new job and garnering a paycheck and perhaps feeling just a tad more worthy now that I will be making a financial contribution to the household. It is a unique experience to be able to stay home and raise your children but it remains an incredibly challenging gap to overcome on a resume. Explaining to a potential employer your new found relevance is a daunting task after being out of the workplace for 6 years. Then, when you find your way back in, you still have to request concessions; you have to negotiate for flexibility because you cannot abandon your children’s carefully chosen trajectory.

Up until this point their path has been laden with extracurricular activities and unsparing parental involvement, some may call it indulgence, that is now threatened by your absence. Juggling and paying for after school care becomes a mad dance between you, the school, the school bus, the after care provider and most importantly their geography as I found out. The geographical boundaries of your child’s school take precedence, you can’t have a provider that is not in the geographical area serviced by your child’s school bus. OOps!

This is why people go "home" and/or move closer to their families when they have children because childcare and activity scheduling is practically impossible otherwise unless you have ample funds to afford it. One child is sometimes manageable but daycare for two children means a bill so large that it is more cost effective for someone to stay home. Generally, if you are rich, you can help yourself or poor, the government will help you; if you are middle class the choices mean the difference between realizing any benefits from working or working to pay for daycare in which case why go through the hassle and expense?

Nevertheless, I was kicking and screaming when I left work 6 years ago because I had suddenly lost my individual worth but after a while I realized I had regained it as a mother. Now, I have to go back to work, I am suffering in reverse, once again kicking and screaming but this time for interrupting my motherhood with work.