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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Glad my time is that valuable...

Given all the press the issues of "unemployed need not apply" and "bias against SAHMs returing to work" get, I'm right now looking for a part-time volunteer gig to keep my skills current and have something on my resume to "validate" the gap.  One might argue that - in my particular case especially - my leaving the workforce was the only thing a responsible adult, or even a decent human being, would do.  But this is a capitalist country with the Feminist/Me generation in power, and I know I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do one day as to why I tabled a faux-Ivy degree and a management consulting career to read Dr. Seuss and kiss Pillbug's drooly little toothless smiles 4934984308 times a day.

My "decision" to stay at home was sort of made for me .  While my old management team - cool people in their own right - were really enthusiastic about helping me get a position on the West Coast, ultimately I had to turn down the one available.  Travelling 5 days a week in your last trimester of pregnancy really limits your prenatal care options (in a town where most of these doctors belong in the 50s, in Woodstock, and/or on the Island of Dr. Moreau), and is impossible to justify when you have a newborn.  There is just no boss great enough, no job that offers enough compensation or opportunities for advancement, to compel me to cut short my maternity leave, never breastfeed/pump, and not see my husband and son more than 2/3 of the time.  And nobody was going to hire a pregnant woman who appeared to be carrying triplet elephants. So I am rounding out Month #5 at home.

I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't trade my time with Pillbug for the world.  It's an honor to be his mom and a privilege to be the main player in shaping his early years.  But not only do I need/miss adult conversation, I also worry about paying for college and all the other expensive accoutrements of raising a genius.So I thought I'd hit up one of the charitable organizations in town and see if anyone needed assistance in logistics, communications, etc a day or so a week. Granted, if I'm not working from home, Pillbug will come with me, but I'll add that as a footnote when I actually speak with someone. The job market is flooded with PhDs in Astrophysics who also have MBAs from Harvard competing for minimum wage positions as mail room clerks, but I'm offering to work for free. No problem, right? 
WRONG. I get email responses that "I'll call you on X date", then nothing! Talk about a blow to the ego.  The universe is trying to tell me something here, but I'm just not sure what. 

I'm going to drown my sorrows in diet grape soda now, and maybe break out the Baby Neptune CD I pirated and see if Pillbug and the cats want to form a Conga line to Eine Kleine Nachtmusic.2

1 Pillbug is the smartest person ever to live.  In addition to best looking, most loving, most well-behaved, etc.  Kind of like almost every other child on this planet if you ask his/her mom.
2 Why can't it be a more interesting genre, such as Jimmy Buffet, that They say makes your baby smarter?

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