Friday, April 20, 2012

Pick your Passion or Do it All?


I've been thinking a lot about my last post (before the Clean House Challenge post)and I'm no closer to deciding.

I chatted with another friend of mine yesterday. She's basically in the same boat, just without a kid. She gave up a craft or two when she & her hubby moved, but she still has more than she has time or space for. She had a similar problem with employment. A lot of the jobs she sought required years of experience in that particular field. She (& I!) have years of experience in various fields.

That also got me thinking about working & staying home & then I saw this article. I've had a lot of people say things like "good for you!" when I say I'm a stay-at-home mom. I love being with my daughter & would have a hard time going back to work now, but I didn't become a SAHM entirely by choice. I had a job I loved in disability support at the local community college & I went back to work after I had her. I had lost my stride in the workplace though & was struggling to catch up with things, but my main concern was that we weren't breaking even with the costs of childcare. It seemed like I should be. I earned $11 an hour & childcare costs came out to roughly $5 an hour. The main problem was that the daycare charged per week regardless of how many days the kids were actually there & the occasional sick day would cost me doubly as I was paying for daycare I wasn't getting & I wasn't earning anything from work. I was still considered a temp worker & had no paid leave of any sort (so my maternity leave had already cost us on top of hospital bills & all.) Then, what totally sunk us... due to the economy & what-not... we had budget cuts... My hours were going to be cut in half. My boss knew what that meant. I was done. So, we chose to have me just stay home, rather than try to find a higher paying job somewhere else. It just wasn't likely at all.

I thought I'd have so much time to keep the house cleaned up & do my crafts & hobbies... ha!

I've since looked around & learned that most other SAHMs aren't much better than I am at keeping up with everything & having time to themselves. My neighbors are better at keeping their houses cleaned up, but they don't seem to get as caught up in hobbies & computer time as I do. I've started wondering how the heck I (or anyone else) managed any semblance of cleanliness & have time for hobbies while working. The only benefit is that the house wasn't getting messed up (any more than the cats could manage)while we were at work.

I don't know. I know I definitely need to get off my butt more & get better at cleaning up, but as for the rest of the balancing act... *shrug*


So, what do you think? Do you think it's better to pick a passion or try & do all that brings you joy? Prioritize & organize or go with the flow?

I tend to not like extremes & look for the happy middle ground, but I think I'm leading my life more in the try to do it all and go with the flow style & it's not working for me.

3 comments:

  1. It's continually a struggle for me to find that balance. I NEVER have time to get done everything I want or NEED to get done. I try to keep up with my blogging and Pinterest and things to help promote myself but then I spend so much time promoting that I run out of time to create things TO promote.
    The kiddos take a lot of time. I'm very excited for my youngest to start kindergarten in 2013. I feel a bit guilty about that but I'm ready for me to find ME.

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  2. If doing it all isn't working for you (and I suspect that if it were, you wouldn't have written this) then pick a few things to focus on. What is your priority now? If you give up something that doesn't mean it's forever. You can always pick it up again. Remember very few choices in life have to be permanent.

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  3. Yeah, here's where I run into trouble with that... a. prioritizing... choosing in the first place. & b. if it's temporary I can't stand to part with the stuff involved & then it just sits, taking up space, as it always has. >_<

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