Goodbye Bon Bons and Oprah

What I’m about to say only sounds like it could be an April Fool, folks. I will now be retiring my title of stay-at-home-mom. I got a job. I know! A job. One in which I will be required to get up even earlier than I do now, find and wear pants that fit, drive to an office and sit in front of a computer that will not be displaying my own web site. I will also be getting something I have not received in a very long time; a paycheck. Actually, I can’t really say I will be getting a paycheck because shortly after payday it will be turned around and deposited to the little guy’s new pre-school. Yes, I am working solely to enable to my child to go to pre-school this Fall, the year right before he enters Kindergarten.

So let me back up and tell you all how this happened. As dedicated readers know, little guy has speech delay and Sensory Processing Disorder. He’s been receiving therapy (both speech and OT) since age 18 months. In addition, at age three he started a speech pre-school that is part of the public school system. He’s attended this 5 day a week program since last August. He absolutely loves school and in fact has done so well academically and overall that his teachers and therapists state he will not need to continue with Special Education and in fact would do well in a regular pre-school. Unfortunately, “regular preschool” is not part of the public school system (though I think it should be!) and must be paid for at a private school. It’s not even within the realm of possibility for us to pay for pre-school out of our current resources. So, as much as I love being a stay-at-home-mom and was not at all considering returning to the working world at this point (beyond my side projects; SimpliSave, Draga Designs and of course, this blog) getting a job was the only answer. We felt strongly that not having the structure and opportunities of pre-school the year before entering Kindergarten would be a big social and academic setback. Little guy is at the top of his class academically and overall seems to be pretty darn smart. Of course we’re thrilled that he’s doing so well but we weren’t prepared for having to figure out what to do in order to keep him in a pre-school program.

A while back I started sending out resumes for positions which met pretty strict criteria. My attempt was to obtain a part time position (something that is surprisingly hard to find) for a local company (so I didn’t have to drive far) during regular business hours during the workweek (so I would be gone mostly during the time little guy was at school and have maximum family time outside work hours). I got one call for an interview and was offered that job. It was truly one of those “meant to be” situations. Now frankly, I’m a tad nervous to enter the work world after many years. I’m not even used to having adult conversations during the day and I just know that within the first week I’ll be asking a co-worker if they need to go potty and if their crankiness means it’s time for a nap. But this is a new chapter in my life and one that I think will be a big positive overall.

Stay tuned to see how this all unfolds. Because you just know there are going to be some interesting posts coming up! Oh, and even though “stay-at-home-mom” may no longer apply to “SAHM” for me, “Surviving Assorted Home Mayhem”, always will.