I know I should feel guilty, but I just don’t. Two weeks in to my new job, a friend texted me to ask how it was going. My response: “Paid vacation” (plus palm tree and martini emoticons).
Okay, so it might not be cocktails on the beach, but compared to being at home all day with a toddler, that’s exactly what it feels like. My job isn’t remarkable or glamorous, I work in an office, doing officey-type things, but each morning as I sit nursing a mug of HOT Earl Grey and checking my emails, I think “I can’t believe I am getting paid to be here!”
And the joys don’t stop at freshly brewed tea.
I get to wear nice clothes. And makeup! I know, as a stay at home mum, technically I could have set aside the time each day to pretty myself up, but when the majority of the day’s tasks include cooking fish fingers, cleaning wee off the floor and being ridden around like a pony with a tiny jockey yelling “faster mummy, faster!” a nice pinstripe skirt and a white blouse does seem a little bit formal.
Our team share their first thoughts after meeting their newborns. (Post continues after video.)
I’ve actually found myself doing a double take a couple of times, seeing my refection in the bathroom mirror before work – smooth hair, clean shirt, some lipstick -“Ah there you are, old friend!”
And I look capable. I look like I know what I’m doing. At home all day, my uniform was usually unwashed jeans, hair in a bun and a grey hoody. I certainly didn’t look capable of much (except maybe robbing a Seven Eleven).
Now I look like a functioning adult, and it’s amazing how much just looking more together has improved my self esteem. Or maybe it’s that people at work actually listen to me when I speak instead of yelling “NOO!” in my face, before I can even finish a sentence.
The last significant work perk is toilet breaks. Whenever I want. Uninterrupted. Small children have supersonic hearing, tuned to the precise frequency of the “click” of a bathroom door closing. Within seconds they are either clambering to sit on your lap or screaming like they are being kidnapped.
The amount of times I have run from the bathroom, pants around my ankles yelling “What, what, what? Are you okay?!” doesn’t bare thinking about. Really. So now I can take a few minutes to myself, and honestly, the novelty hasn’t worn off yet.
But in spite of all of all this, if work is such an amazing holiday, why do I find myself in the bathroom crying on a Monday afternoon? Trying not to mess up my fancy work makeup and go in to a messy, noisy sob?
I miss her. I miss that sticky little moon face. I wonder what she is doing at childcare or if she is hungry right now. I wonder if she is missing me, or if she is happy, sad or cold. I should have put a warmer jumper on her.
I miss the noise, I miss the early afternoon cuddles on the couch,I miss the little playdough cakes she makes me for our picnics and the way she giggles like crazy when I pretend to eat them.
I send my friend a text: brief case and sad face emoticons. Being at work today feels shitty, because even though I love my new job, I love that little Moonface Munchkin and miss her so much more than I could have imagined.
Top Comments
No. Don't be concerned for stay-at-home mums. You'll never get another gig at MM if you keep that up.
"Working" mums boost the economy, you know. Stay-at-home mums just wreck it. They are lazy, spandex-stretching good-for-nothings who expect the taxpayer to look after them while they sit on the couch watching Oprah. "Working" mums expect nothing from others - except that someone else raises their kids and that everyone else fund their childcare and maternity leave costs and that employers allow them to take any time off they need to attend their family needs. But that's okay, it's not like they're sitting at home doing nothing like those mums who don't work.
Read the memo, Isabel. Read the memo. Hopefully MM won't notice this article and you'll get to write again.
Obviously you've never had to look after a toddler all day or you would know that there is most definitely NO time to sit around watching television and "doing nothing" . What do you think day care centres get paid to do ? How many paid day care workers watch Oprah all day ?
I may be wrong but i think hmmm was being sarcastic
Really? I've read a lot of articles around here about working mums and childcare and maternity leave and boosting the economy, and they make it pretty clear that if you're not getting paid to do your job, you're not useful to society. Maybe mamamia have got it all wrong?
Reading articles and actually living in someone elses shoes are two very different things . And I actually do work part time . I value spending my time raising my daughter above pouring beers though .
Of course things look better when you compare the worse of one side with the best of the other.
How about a comparing being screamed at by your boss for forgetting the cover sheet to your TPS reports against your cuddles on the couch with your child?