I am so thankful that I have two healthy children and did not have any problems getting pregnant with them. I was reading an article today online about a little boy who was born with trisomy 18 and lived for 99 days. While viewing the tribute video on youtube, there were other videos suggested about other children who either lost their battle in some way or won but had some battle scars. It made me realize just how lucky I am that my children are healthy and happy. It also made me miss spending more time with them since I have to work. I know that may sound selfish to some that I want to spend more time with my children and would rather not work. However, we are not promised a tomorrow and if something horrible did happen, I would feel so bad for not spending more time with my children.
My youngest is changing daily and some of the changes I did not notice until I was off work this past week and got to spend a lot of quality time with him. My little girl is also changing. When I look back at where she was just a year ago, I am amazed at how much she has grown up and changed in appearance over this past year. It truly is baffling why time speeds up the older we get. I guess it is a downhill race of sorts and when you get to the bottom - it is over. The more time you go down the hill, the faster you get and it seems as if weeks fly by. Remember when you were a kid and it seemed like it took forever for Christmas to come back around or for school to be out for summer? If only time would be that slow again and give me the opportunity to really soak up the memories of watching them grow up.
December 28, 2008
December 27, 2008
Farewell Christmas - until next year!
It is hard to believe that Christmas came and went so quickly. It seems as if it just snuck up on me and went by like a bullet train. It is always so sad when it is all over and you realize you have another whole year until you can get excited about Christmas and have all the anticipation. Though I am glad to be able to sleep the last night or so. Have you ever noticed that it is still hard sometimes to get to sleep on Christmas Eve even though you are an adult, you know better, etc. ? I do. Maybe it is that small child left in me that wants to believe that Santa was real and maybe just maybe something will be under my tree on Christmas Day that only could have come from Santa. Of course that is wishful thinking and I know better but still. Anyway - another Christmas come and gone and now the cold and yuck of winter is going to set in and I begin to look forward to spring!
December 16, 2008
Thank you Brenda Barnes
I just read about how Brenda Barnes, the CEO of Sara Lee, was on the Today show talking about how she left the workforce to be at home with her children and returned in to a high level position. She has created a program at Sara Lee called returnship. Mom's go to work part time and receive education and training on what has changed while they were out of the workforce. She also encourages flextime and work from home. FINALLY!!! Someone gets it! Thank you Brenda Barnes!!
Now, if only the rest of the business world would follow. My ideal would be that women would not have to make the difficult choice and return to the workforce before their children enter school at age 5 unless they absolutely wanted to - not because of finances. I think women should have the option to draw their social security to help supplement the loss of income we take when we decide to stay at home with our children. When I was interviewing, I didn't dare even mention that I was a Mom or that I had enjoyed being home with my children. I know that employers tend to secretly discriminate against Moms. Then there is the blatant discrimination where we tend to get in attendance trouble because we need to take care of sick children. Heaven forbid one of our children get sick. Of course businesses expect us to pawn our sick children off on relatives or make our spouse miss work.
We don't treat our Mom's right in this country. We don't provide enough maternity time. We dont provide options for Moms to stay at home without going through extreme financial hardships in most cases. We are not Mom friendly in the workplace - very little flex time or work at home opportunities (that are legit), and penalizing Moms for doing the most important job we have in the entire world - raising our children.
I think it is time that the business world and government woke up and began to work to help Moms in all kinds of areas. There is a Mother's Act before the Senate currently. It keeps getting stalled of course. It would provide funding for research in to Post partum depression. It would also establish a national awareness campaign. Ladies - we are strong and honestly, we are powerful. We need to stand up for our rights to raise our children without fear of loosing our jobs. Without the financial hardships of going down to one income from two.
Ok - I"ll step off my soap box. This is just something I get very passionate about.
Now, if only the rest of the business world would follow. My ideal would be that women would not have to make the difficult choice and return to the workforce before their children enter school at age 5 unless they absolutely wanted to - not because of finances. I think women should have the option to draw their social security to help supplement the loss of income we take when we decide to stay at home with our children. When I was interviewing, I didn't dare even mention that I was a Mom or that I had enjoyed being home with my children. I know that employers tend to secretly discriminate against Moms. Then there is the blatant discrimination where we tend to get in attendance trouble because we need to take care of sick children. Heaven forbid one of our children get sick. Of course businesses expect us to pawn our sick children off on relatives or make our spouse miss work.
We don't treat our Mom's right in this country. We don't provide enough maternity time. We dont provide options for Moms to stay at home without going through extreme financial hardships in most cases. We are not Mom friendly in the workplace - very little flex time or work at home opportunities (that are legit), and penalizing Moms for doing the most important job we have in the entire world - raising our children.
I think it is time that the business world and government woke up and began to work to help Moms in all kinds of areas. There is a Mother's Act before the Senate currently. It keeps getting stalled of course. It would provide funding for research in to Post partum depression. It would also establish a national awareness campaign. Ladies - we are strong and honestly, we are powerful. We need to stand up for our rights to raise our children without fear of loosing our jobs. Without the financial hardships of going down to one income from two.
Ok - I"ll step off my soap box. This is just something I get very passionate about.
December 10, 2008
Santa Claus and bail outs
I know this is going to sound really silly, but last night I was up late as I usually am, and the Christmas tree was on, and I wondered to myself what life would be like if Santa Claus existed for adults. What if he was as real for us as he is for our children? If that was the case, what would I ask him for? I found myself knowing exactly what I would ask for the money to allow me to stay at home with my children so that I not only could spend time with them but have the time to be a better wife. To also be able to work on an idea that I have for a non-profit and get that off the ground. Amazing how what I would want now doesn't involve new gadgets, new clothes, toys, etc.
This thought just kept taking me down the path of wondering how many people really need a real life Santa to help them out right now. I can't pull up CNN.com or look at the newspaper without seeing how bad the economy is. Thousands of jobs are being cut almost daily and that means families are struggling to keep roofs over their heads, food on the table, and keep themselves out of bankruptcy. Many of those families are middle class families just like mine who just went through buying a home during the time when prices were sky rocketing, have debt, and now wonder what the future holds. I look at this company and that company getting millions of dollars in bail outs and wonder to myself "what about us?" What about all of us that are down in the trenches suffering and those that are a lot worse off then me? Where is our bailout? As the CEO and CFO of my family, I may have made some bad financial decisions. Does that mean I can trot off to Washington and ask Congress for some money to bail me out? Nope!
I really hope that as we enter in to a new year and a new Presidency that something changes to fix this mess. I know it will take time but I"m not sure a lot of people have the time to wait. I know my patience level is low because I'm having to give up something that I will never ever get back - time with my children to go back in to the workplace to keep us from going under.
This thought just kept taking me down the path of wondering how many people really need a real life Santa to help them out right now. I can't pull up CNN.com or look at the newspaper without seeing how bad the economy is. Thousands of jobs are being cut almost daily and that means families are struggling to keep roofs over their heads, food on the table, and keep themselves out of bankruptcy. Many of those families are middle class families just like mine who just went through buying a home during the time when prices were sky rocketing, have debt, and now wonder what the future holds. I look at this company and that company getting millions of dollars in bail outs and wonder to myself "what about us?" What about all of us that are down in the trenches suffering and those that are a lot worse off then me? Where is our bailout? As the CEO and CFO of my family, I may have made some bad financial decisions. Does that mean I can trot off to Washington and ask Congress for some money to bail me out? Nope!
I really hope that as we enter in to a new year and a new Presidency that something changes to fix this mess. I know it will take time but I"m not sure a lot of people have the time to wait. I know my patience level is low because I'm having to give up something that I will never ever get back - time with my children to go back in to the workplace to keep us from going under.
So it begins
I have always been one to write about what was going on in my life including the ups, downs, thoughts, ideas, etc. I never thought about taking my writing to the Internet until just recently when it dawned on me that maybe someone might actually read it and relate. Maybe someone might get something out of what I write and be able to know they are not the only ones in the world that feel that way. So, it begins.
Perhaps a little background about me might be helpful. I was career focused out the ying yang until about three and a half years ago. I Aworked long hours, never took a true vacation, and basically lived to work. I enjoyed trying to go higher in my career, learn new things, and be better at everything that I did. I obtained my MBA while working and thought that might take me to where I wanted to go. Then in 2005, I realized that maybe it was a good time to make a change. I moved, along with my husband, from the west coast to my hometown in the south. I took some undergrad course work that I was missing and applied to a master's level program to obtain a degree that would take me in a new direction career wise. Well, I didn't get in. By the time I found out that I didn't get in, I was pregnant with my first child, my daughter.
After she was born, I began looking for a position in our current location knowing full well that it would be hard to find anything. The longer it took to find something the more I began to enjoy being a Stay at Home Mom. I enjoyed spending time with my daughter, seeing her grow up, having the flexibility to partake in hobbies. After about 15 months of this, I became pregnant with my second child, my son. I kept looking for jobs while pregnant to a certain point but then stopped as I got to far along. After he was born, I really had to find a job because financially I couldn't stay home any longer. See, we never prepared financially for me to be a stay at home mom because I never thought I wanted that. I thought I always wanted to be the career woman who went off to work and put in 150% or more and climbed the ladder. I really wanted to be a stay at home mom with my son as I had been with my daughter to this point.
Unfortunately, I did get a job about a month ago and it has been so hard to leave my children and not spend time with them during the day. I miss them terribly and I feel as though I am cheating my son since he is only three months old and won't get to have the two years of me being at home like my daughter did. I feel like I'm cheating my daughter because all she has ever known is ma ma being at home. It is also difficult for me that she has some developmental delays and I can no longer be present for her speech therapy and other therapy sessions.
So, that is some background on me. I never imagined that being a Mom and being a Stay At Home Mom would be so enjoyable and be something that meant more to me than anything else.
Perhaps a little background about me might be helpful. I was career focused out the ying yang until about three and a half years ago. I Aworked long hours, never took a true vacation, and basically lived to work. I enjoyed trying to go higher in my career, learn new things, and be better at everything that I did. I obtained my MBA while working and thought that might take me to where I wanted to go. Then in 2005, I realized that maybe it was a good time to make a change. I moved, along with my husband, from the west coast to my hometown in the south. I took some undergrad course work that I was missing and applied to a master's level program to obtain a degree that would take me in a new direction career wise. Well, I didn't get in. By the time I found out that I didn't get in, I was pregnant with my first child, my daughter.
After she was born, I began looking for a position in our current location knowing full well that it would be hard to find anything. The longer it took to find something the more I began to enjoy being a Stay at Home Mom. I enjoyed spending time with my daughter, seeing her grow up, having the flexibility to partake in hobbies. After about 15 months of this, I became pregnant with my second child, my son. I kept looking for jobs while pregnant to a certain point but then stopped as I got to far along. After he was born, I really had to find a job because financially I couldn't stay home any longer. See, we never prepared financially for me to be a stay at home mom because I never thought I wanted that. I thought I always wanted to be the career woman who went off to work and put in 150% or more and climbed the ladder. I really wanted to be a stay at home mom with my son as I had been with my daughter to this point.
Unfortunately, I did get a job about a month ago and it has been so hard to leave my children and not spend time with them during the day. I miss them terribly and I feel as though I am cheating my son since he is only three months old and won't get to have the two years of me being at home like my daughter did. I feel like I'm cheating my daughter because all she has ever known is ma ma being at home. It is also difficult for me that she has some developmental delays and I can no longer be present for her speech therapy and other therapy sessions.
So, that is some background on me. I never imagined that being a Mom and being a Stay At Home Mom would be so enjoyable and be something that meant more to me than anything else.
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