Without having a crystal ball that can predict the future, I’ll say “I’ll Never Work Full-Time Again”.
Normally, I work each day, but generally just the mornings. Most days of the week, I’m home around 1:00 in the afternoon. But, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve had some weird working schedules. Because of some schedule changes, I ended up working one full-day instead of two half days and I ended up working an afternoon instead of a morning. I.Hated.It!
Those two days that I either worked all day or worked in the afternoon, I didn’t make dinner. I ended up picking up fast food. It wasn’t because I didn’t have time to plan meals. Oh no, I had meals planned. It wasn’t because we didn’t have leftovers that we could have eaten. We did. I just didn’t feel like getting home at 5:30 p.m. and making dinner – even if it just involved reheating yesterday’s dinners.
And since Phinehas goes to bed around 7:00 p.m. or so, I only had about 90 minutes with him at night before he went to sleep.
How Do Full-Time Working Moms Do It?!?
This isn’t a judgment that working full-time is a sin. I don’t think it is. But from a practical perspective, how do full-time working moms do it all? With only 90 minutes in the evening, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to spend a significant portion of it making dinner. And I wouldn’t want to save laundry or cleaning or grocery shopping for the evenings and weekends. Truth be told, when I got home, I didn’t feel like doing anything. I just wanted to drop on the couch.
I adore working only part-time. To me, it’s a wonderful thing for our family. For this time. Jeff leaves for work super early in the morning to avoid traffic. I get about 90 minutes with my son in the morning before work. He goes to my sister’s and hangs out with his cousins. I work a few hours. I pick him up. We come home or we run errands. We hang out in the afternoons. He naps. While he does, I prep dinner or do laundry or clean or read. Jeff gets home around 3:00 most days. We catch up on our days. We eat dinner (usually by 5:00 p.m. – we’re early eaters around here!). We play with Phinehas. We watch Wheel of Fortune at 6:30. Phinehas goes to bed shortly after.
There are tons of time that we both get to spend with him. Not many dads are home around 3:00 most days. Not many working moms are home around 1:00 most days. We are truly in a great phase of life. We truly are blessed to have this lifestyle that suits us so well.
Things will change. I know this. Jeff might not always work this schedule. I might quit my job some day. But I don’t ever see myself working full-time again. Not even when we’re empty nesters.
Funny thing about the word never, it often makes you eat your words – good luck with that.