Full-time Mommy Needs Full-time Job: Don

Full-time Mommy Needs Full-time Job: Don’t get me wrong. I love my kids. Sharing a bowl of cereal with my 2-year-old… http://wp.me/pHSQY-3

http://ow.ly/1Krht

http://ow.ly/1Krht

Full-time Mommy Needs Full-time Job

Don’t get me wrong. I love my kids. Sharing a bowl of cereal with my 2-year-old while my 9-month-old survives another tumble sounds like a beautiful job. But if it were my choice, I would be working for lousy pay at all hours and loving it!

We have all heard it said ‘parenthood is the hardest job in the world.’ It is. That is not in dispute. What I am disputing is that if it were in fact my choice to remain in my bathrobe chasing after my little ones all day, would I then be happy?

The fact of the matter, it was not my choice to be a stay-at-home mom. It was decided for me.

I was never a person that needed job satisfaction until I landed my first post-grad job with an NBC affiliate. I never knew you could actually be happy going to work and feel like you actually accomplished something when the time came to clock out. Now that I have had a taste of such a feeling, I cannot possibly settle for less.

So what is an unsatisfied mother to do?

You might suggest, job-hunt, social network with professionals in your field to once again try to obtain that euphoric feeling. Doesn’t work. In today’s economy all that does is get your hopes up on job possibilities only to never receive a response so once again you are alone, at least for me.

So maybe I am just not making as much out of being a full-time mommy as I should.

I am sure there are lots of stressed, office-hating parents out there that are not happy with me right now. They long to be home with their precious bundles instead of working the late hours their jobs demand. I apologize. However, what I can’t apologize for is how I feel.

Psychology Today blogger, Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D, says  your sense of self  is in large part a function of your social environment. So what happens when you go from the corporate world where each decision affects the lives of thousands to deciding whether to put Nickelodeon’s Noggin or Disney on the tube?

“If the company disappears, those structural supports are pulled out, and you tend to feel your sense of self start to melt, seep and leak,” says Sherman.

When I was working my long hours as the New Media Producer for News 4 in Reno, I was longing to hold my daughter and hear her sweet melodic voice every single moment of each working day. At the same time though, I knew who I was and what I was doing was best for her. Let me explain.

I was puting food on the table, Mommy was stressed but fulfilled and when we spent time together the quality was immeasurable.

Nowadays,  I beg Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, to take my daughter for a walk, story-time at the library, the park, anything,  so I can have some ‘me time.’ The quantity of time we spend together has really taken a hit on the quality we once shared. There is something to this.

In an article entitled ‘Hard Choice For Moms: Work or Stay Home?’ WebMD.com writer Dulce Zamora claims, “a mother’s level of fulfillment and the quality (versus quantity) of time she spends with her child are the biggest components to his intellectual and emotional development and to his ability to succeed in the world.”

Clinical psychologist, Cara Gardenswartz, Ph.D, agrees with Zamora in her article.

“If mom is a happier person, then she is going to have a more fulfilling and therefore healthier relationship with her kids,” says Gardenswartz.

I want those special moments again. I want my children to get the professional, daily showering, excited-to-see-them Mommy back.

The constant worry each month of whether my family will have a roof overhead, that my former employment helped to alleviate, does not make me a fun mommy to be around. It does not help my predicament that I live in Nevada.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nevada has a higher unemployment rate , 13.3 percent as of September 2009, than the national average of 10.2 percent. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for me here.

Maybe all I need is a parent-group, psychiatrist, another stay-at-home mom to tell me I am not alone. Or maybe what I really need is a job.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!