I Am a Working Woman

About two weeks ago I started working with a friend who needed help on a 3-week project. There were many reasons that I decided to do it...I hadn't worked outside of the home since 1995 and what better way could I get something current on my resume, she needed help, I could set my hours from 8:30-2 so I could still drop off and pick up the kids at school, I thought it would be fun to work in a real office and get paid instead of being the career volunteer that I have been since school began for us in 2000, and I wanted to see what it was really like to be a working mom.

I have always given working moms a free pass on the volunteer opportunities I am in charge of at the schools and now I am so glad...it's hard!! Knowing it's only 3 weeks makes it easy, but I now have real empathy for what working moms have to do and I am thankful for that.
What I am doing is relatively easy computer programming/data entry and I actually like the tediousness...is that sad? And it has nothing to do with children or wiping noses or crowd control or snacks, unless you count the food we bring in for each other...yum. It's fun to have a desk and be in an office with huge windows and 4 other people who tell me I look nice sometimes. I can't remember the last time I heard that, it's been at least a few months.

Not knowing what my husbands reaction to me working would be, I didn't tell him for the first week. I wasn't sure what he'd say, but since it was so short term, I knew he wouldn't really care. When I said I needed help filling out a paper and handed him my W-9 form, his jaw dropped. He said something like this: "You got a job? That's GREAT!" Almost like he's been waiting years for me to get out there and so something! Which made me think...what have I been doing from 8-2 since our youngest started full day school 2 years ago? I have billions of pictures to prove where I have been with the school classes and wouldn't change a minute of my volunteering, but maybe it's time to look for a real part-time job that lasts longer than 3 weeks. In this economy, I'd say I have no chance, but I may be looking.