How a hot chocolate brought me joy

The Saturday paper contains a section on careers.  I read it in case the perfect job saying "needs no experience but a decade of being a stay-at-home mum would be looked upon highly favourably", suddenly appears.  They always have little articles about how to get jobs/write resumes etc.  This weekend contained an article on why women keep working even when the cost of childcare uses up all their earnings.  I'll share a little bit of the article with you.

Jade Jones ... a full-time radio producer spends almost all of her wage on childcare for her one and two year old daughters.  'As a woman, I wanted to be defined by more than one aspect of my life,' Jones says.  'I want to be mother and a damn good mother, but I also wanted to do something else that was important to me and I wanted to set an example to my girls.  You can be good at more than one thing.'


Juliet Bourke is a partner at Acquus Partners, a workplace change consultancy that specialises in work and family balance.  She believes that work is really about making us 'well-rounded individuals'.  'It's really about women's intellectual capabilities, stimulation, identity and engagement, as well as pay', she says... Families with two incomes are more economically resilient and people who successfully juggle family and work life are less stressed than those with a single focus for their attention.  


My Career section, Sydney Morning Herald, Aug 28,-29, 2010.


Articles like this always make me feel like I've been 'left behind' (and a bit of a bozo) by not juggling kids with work.

But then today I went shopping with my youngest child (3 1/2 yo) and we had a such a lovely time.  We bought clothes for her older brother, she didn't complain, she didn't cry and patiently wandered around with me.  She told me long, complicated stories about her made-up friend, Lolly, and I had great fun asking her questions.
Me: 'Where did you meet Lolly?'
A:  'Out on the street Mummy'
Me:  'How many brothers and sisters does Lolly have?'
A:   'She has three big brothers Mummy'

She was very excited to scrape the foam off the top of my hot chocolate (and then proceed to drink it all).

It is often tempting to put her in childcare and go and get a job so that I'm more 'well-rounded', not just defined by my children (according to the article).  But I wouldn't have missed today for the world.  It was fun and so precious.  It's lovely to get to enjoy having one child at home.  After my life being totally crazy for years an outing like this helps me remember the joy of just hanging out with my kids.