I have experimented with being the stay at home mum and a going out to work. I’m now somewhere in between. I honestly couldn’t tell you which was harder. They are different both in a physical and emotional way. Trying to get yourself ready for work with food stain on your clothes, looking alert and raring to go when you’ve been working up 3 times in the night or had a 5am alarm clock in the form of mini human jumping on your head and informing you its play time is new dimension and one I never experienced as carefree working women.
“I don’t like Mummy go to work”
I could deal with working off a hangover at my desk, but you can’t really work off motherhood! Rushing to pick up your kid, make dinner, bath, read and bed and finally taking a breath at 8pm and realising you haven’t peed in hours because you didn’t have time to notice you needed to. For many women, me included, work provides us with an outlet be something other than mum and partake in the adult world. I stopped working in the capacity I did for several reasons, one being that I didn’t really like I was doing and the stress of the job was taking so much out of if me, that I felt I couldn’t be the mum I wanted to. Plus, I’m older now and life is too short to do things you hate!
What solidified my decision to quit, was when my then 2 year old looked at me one day and “I don’t like Mummy go to work”. I don’t know if he was reading my mind, or I latched on to what he said as it gave me a way out, but Aren, I thank you for your honest and openness. Mummy listened, and you know what darling, you were so right!
