SAH Sunday: Previous Life Edition

[Bluedaisy]

So gorgeous, hard working SAHs I'm super curious what were BK (before kids)? Did you always work from home?

Questions:
1. What was your occupation before kids?
2. If you plan on rejoining the workforce at some point when? (When kids are in school, grown, never)
3. Will you be returning to a similar job?
4. Any problems you foresee with returning to work?

And as usual any rants or raves?



Edited: Because apparently the one mocha I had this morning was no where enough caffeine. 

[Bluedaisy]

1. A Montessori teacher
2. Back to work in September (my mat leave runs out just in time for summer holidays so I get two extra months although I'll have to go in to do prep and set up).

3.I'll be returning to the exact same job but my program is moving to it's own school.

4. The biggest challenge will be how emotional I'll be about leaving LO in daycare and also balancing work and home life as we basically open a brand new school.

No real rants or raves. We've got routines down and I think my mom is going to come visit for a few days which will give me a nice break (mostly so I ca deep clean my house).

[tiffbot]

1. What was your occupation before kids?

I worked in the auto industry. I started as a receptionist at an auto body shop and quickly moved into being the parts manager. When we moved I did a mixture of parts and reception at a new shop.

2. If you plan on rejoining the workforce at some point when? (When kids are in school, grown, never)

We haven't had a serious discussion on this yet. We'll know more what we/I want when we decide for sure if we want to try for a third. But most likely when kids are in school.

3. Will you be returning to a similar job?

Nope. Honestly, I got pretty lucky finding a good job that paid well but it was never what I wanted. I'll more than likely go back to school at some point.

4. Any problems you foresee? And as usual any rants or raves?

I'm not sure I understand the first part, lol! Problems working or just General SAHMness? Regardless things are going well. This may sound lame but this is always what I've wanted and our cards played out right that we could make it happen.

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2016 8:50:31 GMT -5 Bluedaisy said:

So gorgeous, hard working STAHs I'm super curious what were BK (before kids)? Did you always work from home?

Questions:
1. What was your occupation before kids?
2. If you plan on rejoining the workforce at some point when? (When kids are in school, grown, never)
3. Will you be returning to a similar job?
4. Any problems you foresee?

And as usual any rants or raves?

1. I've never worked from home
2. I was a fashion design director for 15 yrs
3. I'm conflicted w returning to work since we would need to live in a large city since most clothing companies are in SF, NY, LA, Vancouver, Paris, London, Tokyo.etc. I grew up in a small town where everyone knew each other so I kind of feel lost in a big city.
4.at this point I'm taking a break from work, H and I are downsizing, being conservative w finances and then we will reassess in a year after we move and try living in a small town to see if we like it. I'm at a loss for what I will do career wide besides maybe open a clothing a store in this town? Or online business of some kind?

[Bluedaisy]

tiffbot, thanks for the response. I've fixed it to make it more clear.

[Bluedaisy]

Jan 24, 2016 10:30:17 GMT -5 budders said:

I cannot for the life of me figure out what STAH means.

ETA: Staying temporarily at home?

Sorry it just means "stay at home" there shouldn't be be a "T"...apparently I was fast asleep

[ashbash]

Jan 24, 2016 10:30:17 GMT -5 budders said:

I cannot for the life of me figure out what STAH means.

ETA: Staying temporarily at home?

Me either!

[prettymama36]

1. I used to be a nurse at our local hospital. It was great because I was able to work in all areas medical, surgical, emerg and obstetrics. I specialized in OBS when I left.
2. This is the big question. I was considering taking the refresher program before I got pregnant. A good point to return if I do, will be when Owen is in grade 1.
3. Probably will return to acute care if it happens.
4. In order to maintain my license, you have to work minimum hours. I want to be sure I will make those minimums before starting the refresher program.
We've been lucky that our home business has been successful enough to allow me to stay home up to this point. We run an amusement company, which operates tons of inflatables, concessions like cotton candy and popcorn, glitter tattoos, face painting etc. Basically a kids dream company

[mirage86]

I worked until the day I went into labor, now I am staying home with him.
1. Previously, I worked as a Tech Service Rep for a printing company. I checked over client's files for errors or possible complications before they moved on to plating and press, and did a lot of fine tuning and creating files for foils, glosses, die cuts, etc.
2. I am undecided as of now. We'll decide once we see where at in a few more years. It is likely that we will be moving to a different area when our lease is up.
3. My former workplace told me I am always welcome back, which is good to know. They were a fantastic company and I loved my coworkers and (most) clients. Ideally, I would prefer to work from home. My degree is in graphic design and I would like to get back into it as a freelancer or maybe start an etsy shop this spring.
4. Not at the moment.
Rant: While I love being with E every day, I don't think my H understands just how much work E is and how badly I need a break sometimes. We don't live close to any family or friends, and I feel very isolated. He is gone 12+ hours a day for work, and doesn't want to do anything but play video games every waking moment on the weekends. I've told him repeatedly how much it bothers me, and his only response is that he wants to relax after working so hard all week. I get it, and I wouldn't mind if it was occasional, but if we are home he is on his computer, ignoring us as much as possible. It kills me that his idea of relaxing has absolutely nothing to do with me or the baby, and nothing I say or do makes a difference. We had a couple of good days last week, but he threw that down the drain yesterday with a 13 hour gaming session.
Tl;dr: Love my baby, husband needs a lot of work.

[paintdadanta]

1. I use to work as an instructional designer building online college courses until I quit due to some HR issues and went full time graduate student with some freelance writing for a family magazine.

2. Financially, I'll return as soon as daycare costs drop or I can find something at night or weekends to avoid childcare. But if I had the option I'd probably wait till he started kindergarten.

3. Unlikely, I'd rather get back to journalism by teaching at local community college or copy editing for a publication. Otherwise, I'll stick with freelance writing, design and marketing.

4. Biggest problem returning is my career fields unreliable hours and DH's 16hr days. But also my chronic back problems are starting to prevent me from fulfilling required duties. I was lucky my previous employer always worked with me concerning it.

I wish childcare wasn't so expensive and that commercial set ups would take cloth diapers. I can't afford $800/week or to buy disposables after investing in cloth to save. Additionally, it would be nice if family would be more supportive of our decision rather than constantly lecturing us about it spoiling our child and wasting my money spent on higher education.

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2016 10:11:08 GMT -5 Kristykristyleelee said:

@poppyc8 can't you live in a suburb of a big city and still get that same small town feel?

possibly considering suburb of Vancouver,but that would mean a long commute

[purple]

Oh wow, I've had so many jobs...

I graduated in 1998 and for the next three and a half years I worked in nursing homes as a care assistant. Not sure what the terminology is over there. Basically I worked with elderly, infirm people and did everything except medical care. I started on nights, then did days for a while and finished on nights again. Incidentally, it was during my first lot of nights that H and I first became good friends.

Then I moved back home (to Wales) for a year and worked as a civil servant.

After that I moved to a completely different part of England and worked in medical recruitment. Unfortunately my boss was a nutter so I ended up having to sue for constructive dismissal. That was fun...

Then I moved back to the Northern city where I went to university and temped for a design company. I organised and project managed the designers. I left that office and temped for a telesales company for six weeks, during which time H and I finally got together as a couple.

I was headhunted by the parent company of the design company because they had spotted that I was good at organisation. I worked there for nearly eighteen months, until I got married and moved to Scotland.

All that time I was also writing seriously. I finished the first draft of my first novel when I was seventeen. I won prizes for my writing at university and have a lovely collection of publishers' rejection letters. The first year we were married I did an MSc in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. Unfortunately I then had writers' block for six years.

My H has a very good salary and bonuses so financially we never needed me to bring in a salary. I don't mean we're stinking rich, but we've always been able to afford what we wanted to, even now L has come along. We both feel very fortunate to be in that position, so I didn't look for paid work but did a lot of voluntary work. And wrote a bit despite the block, although it was hard! Then I started my jewellery business and got pregnant six weeks later, and here I am.

I don't have an Etsy shop but I am looking into it. In the meantime, if you want to look, this is my website: joyful-jewellery.myshopify.com/

Of course, now that I have a baby and no time I feel the writers' block is slowly reducing, but I will get time to write when she's older.

No rants this week. L has been struggling to stay asleep since we moved her to her own room, but I think she's beginning to settle in.

Oh, and there's a large part of me that thinks I must be insane, but we've started NTNP. L is still pretty young and I had a difficult pregnancy, but it took two years to get pregnant the first time and I'll be forty next year. Of course, it might happen this month, and if it does we'll cross that bridge!

[sugarkissed]

1. What was your occupation before kids? I worked as a flight attendant for the majority of my 20's.
2. If you plan on rejoining the workforce at some point when? I'm not sure what the plan is, but probably nothing serious until the kids are in school.
3. Will you be returning to a similar job? Very doubtful. I loved my job and miss it so much, but I can't commit to being away for several days at a time and working such insane hours. I do a bit of photography right now, but mostly just for friends as I don't have much space. If we move to a bigger house we plan to have a room set up as a studio.
4. Any problems you foresee with returning to work? Just getting back into the mindset of having responsibilities outside of my family.

No real rants or raves. I've been a bit cooped up lately with the weather being so cold, but it looks like it's warming up this week so I'm excited to get out for some walks and to play in the snow with DD1.

[Deleted]

mirage86 not to make excuses for your H but if this is your first child he might be still feeling like there are not so many interactive things he can do w the baby. Once DS was able to walk and talk etc my H got way more involved with taking him out on his own with out me there, reading to him, taking him to breakfast and I expect once DS can go fishing with him, swim, ski H will get even more involved. The baby stage can be a bit overwhelming for dads and can make them feel a bit lost and depressed from what my H told me

[ashbash]

1. I worked as a therapist doing ABA therapy for kids on the autism spectrum. I also taught pre k for a few years.

2. I have no idea, Ive been starting to think about it. I wont do therapy again because its so taxing and I cant see doing it well and being a good Mom to my own kids. It also depends on if we homeschool, if we do Id have to do something that worked with that.

3. Maybe? I might teach again. I also am certified and teach birth classes and have thought about becoming a doula. I love all things birth related and want to help change some of the issues I see in maternity care.

4. Balancing it all. I am always in awe of all the Moms here who rock work and Moming

Rants/rave - none really. A little burned out from being homebound for the past few weeks between cold temps and sickness :/

[Bluedaisy]

paintdadanta, we're going to put LO on the wait list for daycare next month and fingers crossed that they will take cloth diapers...if not we'll still cloth diaper at home and he'll be 14 months by the time he goes to daycare so even if we have to buy some disposables it will save us money.

[periwinkledaydreams]

Oh god.. this could be annoying. I'll try not to bore you!
Questions:
1. What was your occupation before kids? Directly before? Early Childhood Teacher, 2-5 year olds. I've worn many many hats previous to that though. Lots of restaurant work, lots of nonprofit/social service type work.
2. If you plan on rejoining the workforce at some point when? (When kids are in school, grown, never) I would have returned already, am only still home because I was injured at work a year prior to giving birth, and out on comp still.
3. Will you be returning to a similar job?
4. Any problems you foresee with returning to work? 3 & 4 are very complicated and all tied up in my ongoing comp case. The problems are not foreseen, they are current and stressful as hell. I'd like to return to a similar job someday but who knows...

[tiffbot]

Jan 24, 2016 17:46:45 GMT -5 ashbash said:

3. Maybe? I might teach again. I also am certified and teach birth classes and have thought about becoming a doula. I love all things birth related and want to help change some of the issues I see in maternity care

Interesting! I pretty much don't know what I want to be, but during DD's pregnancy I too started considering doula or counselling of some sort. Nothing I have any prior experience on, other than being a mom myself, but when I brought it up to some friends once they strongly encouraged me to consider it harder because they thought it would be a good fit. Will have to see where I'm at in a few years and more serious about finding a career again!

[mirage86]

@poppyc8, I think part of his problem is related to feeling like he doesn't know what to do with E. The other part... He is still a 16 year old boy in a lot of ways. I've always battled with him about playing too many video games. He admits that he does spend too much time gaming, but he only changes his behavior for a few days before he is back at it.

[Bluedaisy]

@poppyc8, my husband definitely is like that at times, and I've already noticed he's gotten better as LO gets more interactive.

mirage86, I would be tempted to hide his controllers...

[Bluedaisy]

purple, I love that you are a writer, that's so awesome. My DH writes and one of his colleagues is a novelist. I've read her novels and found it really strange to read a book by someone I knew but that may have been more because a lot of it was inspired by some true events in her teenage years...

[Bluedaisy]

budders, my DH totally rolls his eyes but I love to write and would love to be published.

One of the things DH and his colleagues do is partner up and have accountability challenges...it's like a fitness challenge but it's for words or chapters. It really helps him....oh the contract hanging over his head doesn't hurt.

[Bluedaisy]

budders, haha I sometimes wish DH would take LESS contracts. He has a full time teaching job...and people some to keep coming out of the wood work asking him to write.

[Bluedaisy]

budders, DH writes non-fiction but would someday like to try his hand at historical fiction.