The kids went back to school and now I REALLY feel like a stay-at-home-mom.\u00a0 Prior to that it was summer break, we had just moved, I was unpacking the house, I was planning for a family reunion, I was at the family reunion etc. etc. so the stay-at-home-mom feeling hadn\u2019t really kicked in.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s official and I\u2019m kindof nervous in a way.\u00a0 What will I do all day?\u00a0 Is this just temporary?\u00a0 Will I ever find another job?\u00a0 Do I WANT another job??\u00a0 Since I don\u2019t have a job, how does this whole unemployment thing work??? (Side note: applying for unemployment seems like a full-time job in and of itself.\u00a0 I have a master\u2019s degree for Pete\u2019s sake and I can set up my own blog and register a domain name…but the unemployment application process remains a mystery to me.\u00a0 I can\u2019t even imagine how you would navigate the system if English weren\u2019t your first language!\u00a0 But more on this inanity in a later blog post).<\/p>\n
Anyway, so far so good.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve been able to occupy my time.\u00a0 But the first day was only a \u00bd day of school so I got off easy.<\/p>\n
Plus I had to drive my parents to the airport after dropping the kids off and seeing them settled in their new classrooms.\u00a0\u00a0So that took up some time.<\/p>\n
Then I ran to Wal-Mart for some things. \u00a0While there I found myself continually checking my watch.\u00a0 Was it really only 9:55?!\u00a0 Seriously, I thought my watch had stopped so I double checked the time on my iPhone. \u00a0I had this nagging feeling the whole time that I was supposed to be somewhere else, doing something else.\u00a0 But in a way, I was also enjoying the leisureliness of the whole thing.\u00a0 I got my shopping done.\u00a0 Bought all sorts of crap I didn\u2019t know I needed or wanted.\u00a0 Dropped it all off at home.\u00a0 And STILL made it to school at 11:15 for chit-chat in the hallways with other moms prior to the 11:30 indoor dismissal.<\/p>\n
A friend I saw in passing asked if I was going to the park after school.\u00a0 My blank look must have clued her in to the fact that I had no idea what she was talking about.\u00a0 So she mentioned that I was on the group email about a picnic at a local park after the first day of school.\u00a0 At that point I had to confess that I lost my job and therefore wasn\u2019t getting any emails from that work address anymore.<\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s just stop right here for a second and mention that this whole job loss thing presents its own conundrum.\u00a0 Who to tell and when?\u00a0 And how??\u00a0 How do I tell people that I \u201clost\u201d my job?!\u00a0 I haven\u2019t even told my in-laws (who live in the same town) or some of my siblings, but now find myself in a position of telling random others.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like I\u2019m embarrassed about it\u2026or am I?\u00a0 And it\u2019s not like I really \u201clost\u201d it.\u00a0 Saying I lost my job makes me sound totally irresponsible.\u00a0 Like I packed it in a moving box which got misplaced\u00a0in the basement under Christmas decorations and I won\u2019t find it until December.\u00a0 Let\u2019s be honest: they \u201ctook\u201d my job.\u00a0 They closed the office, relocated the job back to headquarters 10 states and 2 time zones away.\u00a0 And because I had just moved \u2013 oh, and had these pesky responsibilities referred to as a spouse (who has his own job) and a family \u2013 I wasn\u2019t really able to follow the job back to headquarters.\u00a0 But I spent a good month trying to find a job with the same company, only to wake from that crazy dream.\u00a0 Why scramble to take a job that I don\u2019t even want just to stay with the same employer?\u00a0 So I took the money and ran.\u00a0 Now that the \u201cmy heart is in my throat\u201d panicked feeling about being on the brink of financial ruin is just about gone, I should probably start telling people I don\u2019t have a job.\u00a0 And\u00a0please stop sending messages to the defunct email address.\u00a0 And btw here’s my new email address.\u00a0 But I\u2019m busy wearing my new stay-at-home mom hat so I\u2019ll get to it when I can.<\/p>\n
Anyway \u2013 the light bulb went off about the picnic in the park thing.\u00a0 Of course!\u00a0 That\u2019s what stay-at-home moms do!!\u00a0\u00a0 [Ok, I\u2019m now getting rid of the stay-at-home mom hyphens because they\u2019re a pain-in-the-neck to type] \u00a0We go to the park with a picnic!!\u00a0 YES!\u00a0 My first day as a stay at home mom (note no hyphens) and I\u2019m hittin’ the ground running!!!\u00a0 Woo hoo!<\/p>\n
So I hustle home, pack a picnic lunch and get to the park an hour after everyone else because they all stopped at Chik-fil-A on the way there.\u00a0 I\u2019m eating my homemade turkey and pepperjack on white bread when the organizing mom mentions that her email to me bounced back.\u00a0 With a mouthful of gummy bread, I\u2019m now in the position of telling these always-and-permanent stay at homers that I \u201clost\u201d my job and that the email address doesn\u2019t work anymore.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re all very sympathetic.\u00a0 Tisk tisking as if they care.\u00a0 But it\u2019s awkward so I try to make a joke about it.\u00a0 Something along the line of \u201cbut thanks for the invite though, because this gives me a chance to learn from you ol\u2019 pros what I\u2019m supposed to be doing with my time!\u201d hardy har har.<\/p>\n
One of the moms pipes up in her most helpful voice and says \u201cwell, we\u2019re not stay at home moms.\u00a0 We call ourselves full-time moms!\u201d<\/p>\n
Helpful, but not.\u00a0 In my head I\u2019m thinking: WTF?!\u00a0 Seriously??\u00a0 I\u2019m ALSO a full-time mom.\u00a0 I just happened to work outside the house, but I didn\u2019t have some half-assed part-time approach to my kids.\u00a0 I was just as engaged with and concerned for my children as any of all y\u2019all!\u00a0 Beyotch,\u00a0I will totally cage fight you now for that comment!!!<\/p>\n
In reality I gave a little tee-hee and say \u201cis there such a thing as a part-time mom?\u201d\u00a0 Then quickly packed up the kids and headed out.<\/p>\n
End Scene!<\/p>\n
The sun has set on\u00a0Day 1 of stay at home mom land.\u00a0\u00a0And none too soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The kids went back to school and now I REALLY feel like a stay-at-home-mom.\u00a0 Prior to that it was summer break, we had just moved, I was unpacking the house, I was planning for a family reunion, I was at the family reunion etc. etc. so the stay-at-home-mom feeling hadn\u2019t really kicked in. Now it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}