Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work I go.....

For the first time ever, I thought I would link up with Kelly for SUYL –Working Moms.  And in true flustered fashion, I have known about this SUYL for what, months now, and have waited until the afternoon of the big day to try and write something.  Something witty and engaging and funny.

Truth of the matter is, when it comes to being a working mom, I don’t find much witty and engaging and funny with it. And then I find everything about it witty and engaging and funny.  I wish with all my heart that I could stay home with my 5 and 2.5 year olds. And then I like working.  I have tons of working mommy guilt that I struggle with but I know my children are very happy and safe and they are learning so much at their school. I just wish it was me teaching them. And then I love my (sort of semi) high-powered career in corporate finance at a Fortune 500 company. I am fortunate enough to love A LOT of the people I work with and even consider a few of them my very best friends and quite frankly couldn’t imagine my life without them.  

I am lucking enough to have a lot of flexibility in my job. I work slightly longer days in exchange for  a few week days off a month. I can work from home when kids are sick. I have a lot of vacation days. I also have a very helpful hubbie who also has some flexibility. Maybe most important, I’ve been blessed with great sleepers so I can get a lot done during naps and at night.  Sure, we live in a constant state of mayhem (hence the name of my blog) but it is a controlled mayhem. I plan menus for the week. I plan everything months in advance.  I order my groceries online and pick them up at the grocery store. I bake A LOT of chicken breasts in advance, cut them up and freeze cup sized servings of them.  And just this past week I discovered the beauty of shredding chicken in a stand mixer. Thanks Pinterest!!!!

On weekends, we turn into any normal suburban American family as we jet around town in our SUV’s, going from soccer to dance to dinner with friends and then church on Sundays. Weekends go by way too fast.

I still find time to do the things I love….shop (probably should find a little less time for that). Craft. Hang with friends. Blog. Especially reading blogs. That sounds much better than “stalking”, right??!? You know, when I think about it, I think I self-inflict a ton of guilt on myself getting caught up in the lives of SAHM’s, via their blog of course.  It is almost like I didn’t know what I was missing until I discovered blogs a few years back.  In real life, not surprising, most of my friends are also working moms. But we lunch. And we email. And complain about how we had more time to see each other.

Both sides of the coin are WORK. Real work. As another poster wrote, I also cherish the free time I have in my car or even at my desk at work.  SAHM’s don’t have a ton of that.  I hate that my time during the week with my children is so limited, which is why I am pretty stingy with them on the weekends. 

I know I have it good. I mean GREAT. I know I am very fortunate to be in my position in so many, many, many ways. That is something I thank God for every night.  And working allows me to give my children experiences they would otherwise miss out on. Experiences I am not ready to knowingly let them miss out on if I stayed home right now.

I am proud to say it is by choice that I work.   I am not afraid to admit though that I wish I didn’t have to.  So while it is by choice that I work now, I hope sometime in the not so distant future, it is by choice that I stay home. And be a overzealous parent volunteer. And have a minivan.  And a white picket fence. Just kidding….who has time to paint it every year! Neither kind of mom, that's who!