Happy New Year, EcoFrugal mamas! We had a busy but wonderful holiday here, with 7 parties in 9 days between Christmas and New Years, but now we’re cleaning house and getting ready for what 2012 will bring. What’s really blowing my mind is that baby girl has just grown another inch and is starting to speak in full sentences. My tiny baby will be 3 years old in May!
That’s A Good Thing
… because I finally feel like I’ve figured out how to bridge the career gap between having my first kid and when that first kid starts school. BG will stay home with me at least another year, I think, but you know how quickly a year flies by. I did it!
That’s a Scary Thing
Who is this old woman staring at me in the mirror? Somehow, I’ve jumped from being 25 and still experiencing age descrimination in the workplace to being a slightly haggard 29 going on 30, with a kid that’s almost ready to start preschool and a body that simultaneously wants to get having kids out of the way and is totally not ready for another baby yet. What will the next few years bring?
That’s Fine
Well, for once I feel like I can take this as it comes. I’ve gotten through my first pregnancy, first birth, first baby, first career transition to having kids, and it has all gone pretty well, even though it was incredibly intense. I just quit my job as Transportation Editor for Inhabitat last month because baby girl is no longer napping and I don’t have the time for it, and I’m excited to shift to more of my fiction writing work starting next week after I get through covering the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit for Inhabitat. (If you have been following my work there, by the way, you can still see me writing test drives of various green cars as I have transitioned to the position of Road Test Editor, which means fewer hours but getting to keep driving cool cars. You can follow my fiction writing work updates at Ann Arbor Editor, my personal blog.)
How Did You Bridge The Baby Gap?
I know a lot of you are stay-at-home moms or former journalists working on your blogs or from home while you raise kids. Whatever your situation, how did you bridge the baby gap to keep your career or any other passionate pursuits going while you had your first kid? Did you disappear into childrearing for a few years, or did you manage to hold on to a separate identity from Your Name Here, Mo.M.? Let me hear your story in comments, and may 2012 be an awesome year for you and yours!
I guess I never really thought of my work as “a career” – I was always hoping to have kids and stay home for a bit. So after 5 years of teaching when I got pregnant, it was easy to leave (not to mention I had the worst-behaved class EVER that year, making it DOUBLY easy to leave!). That said, the first year I was out of education did feel lonely – not having the commraderie of fellow teachers… but I would go to a teacher writer group once a month, and started blogging, where I found a host of fellow writer/English teacher types I’m now friendly with!
Maybe when I am done having kids (I’ll be closer to 40 – you are lucky to be not yet 30!) I’ll return to the classroom, but we’ll see! I’m open to any possibility that involves me doing writing work, and having a flexible schedule with lots of time for family!
I have no intention of going back to teaching any time soon – I enjoy being home, blogging and freelance writing to my own schedule, and seeing what comes.
I wish you success in this next year with your daughter! Just enjoy it – careers will always be there!