Working Mama

For the past five years, I have done part-time work here and there. I wrote curriculum for my husband's colleague when Henry was little, I have tutored since we moved from Berkeley to southern California, and I taught at a local community college in the evenings. But I have decided that I am ready for an actual - gasp! - daytime job. Five frikkin' years is a long frikkin' time to have been home every day, and I am ready to have co-workers and lunch breaks, not to mention a paycheck. SoCal livin' ain't cheap, you know.

By the way, for all of the people out there who always complain about the prices out here, while it is true that it is expensive, look at where we are living!! Of course it is expensive. We are a few blocks from the ocean, have perfect weather year-round, AND if we want to go to the snow it is a mere three hours away. How many people have that kind of life? So while it is true that I live on a tiny little 3500 square foot lot that is valued at over a million dollars and that we have a mortgage that is over 50% of our income, I think it is worth it. We could easily trade our home for a mansion in Texas, but no way in hell would I do it. Sweaty summer nights, mosquitos, icy winters, and killer humidity. Blech! So we prefer to live here and live simply. A no frills kind of life (except alcohol -- we MUST pay any amount necessary for alcohol, or else I fear the boys might not survive their formative years. I will buy my clothes at Goodwill before I give up drinking).

But back to my point. I went to a local charter school to see if I could do some part-time work for them, and while I was there they fired a math teacher. And they offered me the job! So now I have to figure out if I want to work part-time or full-time. Mostly I am concerned about the kids. I think I would be fine spending more time away from home, but it would be a huge adjustment for the boys. I would have to hire a nanny or put them in longer hours at preschool, and I am not sure how they would react. My guess is that Quinn would be fine and that Henry would be whiny. Of course Henry is whiny about everything, so that wouldn't be a change!

But this school is so cool. It is very unstructured, very respectful of the students and teachers, and very laid back. The teachers go by their first names and wear jeans, and all of the classes work together on team projects. No 50-problem meaningless crappy worksheets to be found. And if your daycare is closed for the day, you just bring your kids with you to class. The entire staff looks like a cover of Vogue Magazine, and they are all so positive and self-reflective. In other words, I really want to work there. I cannot think of any school that would be more fun or more interesting. The teacher that got fired was fired because she apparently was very negative toward the students. The only problem is that she was the Calculus and Statistics teacher, which are two subjects that I have not looked at in roughly 7 years. Yikes! So I guess my holidays will be spent doing a self-taught crash course in upper mathematics.

So here are the pros and cons of full-time versus part-time:

If I were part-time, meaning I would only teach the morning classes, I would still be able to pick the boys up from school, but I would have to race out of work, go pick them up, take them home, and get Quinn down for a nap. I would be off work at 12:30, but that would mean all of my prep work would have to be done at home. And it would be half the pay or less.

If I were full-time, I would be at work until 3:40, but I would have time to prep there, be able to work with other teachers, and would get paid more. But I would have to get a nanny or have extra daycare every day, whereas if I were part-time I would only need to get someone for Tuesdays and Thursdays. But it might actually be easier to find a nanny if I were offering full-time employment. What to do, what to do?