Working Mom to Room Mom

It's almost comical for me to look back at where we were last Fall, with both girls in full-time Montessori, while we all managed family life with a mom and dad's full-time careers. It was a fine balance, one that I took great pride in doing as well as we could possibly manage. Never did I feel like the girls were not getting enough of our time or that I couldn't manage to be as involved as I felt I wanted and needed to be. The time we had was quality over quantity. It was easy enough for me to pop over to their school, just a few miles down from my office, to help at holiday parties or chaperone a field trip. However, I knew that would change once Emma transitioned to her new school for Kindergarten, a good 20 minutes from my office. It would not be so easy or quick to pop over and be as involved.

Thus, we made the decision for me to leave the workforce, and be at home to get the girls going in their new school routine. It was not that difficult of a decision, as my workplace satisfaction had dropped drastically in the prior year, with the arrival of a new management regime. An opportunity reared it's head and I eagerly pursued it.

And now, here I am. Newly assigned "Room Mom" for Camryn's classroom. I've gone from managing a staff of business analysts in a high stress IT environment to managing parties for high energy 3 year olds. Although I've let my Project Management Professional certification lapse, don't think I won't be using those ever handy skills to delegate snack and activity responsibilities to other parents. I might even use a spreadsheet!

See, this time around, I haven't found the transition to be that difficult. I say this time around, because when I stayed home with Emma her first year - I was bored OUT of my MIND. Sorry folks, but the infant play groups just didn't do it for me. Maybe I wasn't quite ready to let go of my career aspirations, and knew I could successfully balance the two. Oh, it was a combination of things, but I have no regrets about going back to work for the following 4.5 years. This time is different though because the girls are at such wonderfully active ages. I love shuttling them to gymnastics, ballet, soccer, volunteering in classrooms and being at home after school to help with homework and serve up healthy snacks. Maybe it's just easier to embrace something when you are mentally ready to move on to that phase? Whatever it is that has made the transition easier this time, I'll take it.

I'm sure a future career awaits me, and when the time is right again, I'll know what that will be. In the meantime, I dabble a little in some independent consulting work and continuously quiz other stay-at-home moms on their part time gigs. I volunteer and have my book club, running, date nights and ladies outings. These all help me to keep my identity as an individual, instead of losing it entirely to Mommyhood.

Maybe I'll follow my fellow GT friend into adjunct professorship, teaching math to community college students. Maybe my other fellow new stay-at-home mom and I will finally come up with that business venture idea that we continue to brainstorm on. Brian laughed at me when he came home the other day and I was researching new business ideas online. He said, "I knew it was only a matter of time until you got bored". The thing is, I'm not bored AT ALL. I just know the time will come when I want to start something new, not out of boredom, but just because I'll need a new challenge, something to push myself past my comfort zone. Until then, bring on the Room Mom tasks!