Activate!
posted in Career Advancement, Mom Rants |
It’s inevitable whenever I meet a new mom the topic of do I work, stay home or what will come up. I’m a talker and I’m also kind of nosy. I like to know what other moms do in their spare time - who they are behind the veneer of Play-Doh and finger paint. I love when moms reciprocate as well and try to find out a little about me. In my post-working life I have so many different facets to share it’s sometime hard to know which ones to activate when. Last week, for instance, when talking to a mom in my son’s camp class, I was volunteer mom.
In my head, moms who volunteer also have perfectly-bobbed hair, clean-shaven legs, wear white dresses with yellow flowers and a strand of pearls to bed. Ok, so does Sarah Jessica Parker, but her hair is long and messy so she can get away with it. I never pictured myself as a lady-who-lunches-while-addressing-envelopes-for-a-fancy-fundraiser.
This does not look like Little Miss Junior League.
But these are my new adventures. Spending my time serving my community. Donating my time and talents to bigger causes.
That is, when I’m not being freelance writer mom. Or SAHM mom. Or even helicopter mom. (Ask my friends who attend playgroup at my house).
Increasingly I realize that while I don’t necessarily want to have a job, I like having the ability to activate the workhorse part of my personality. Like when I get to be “I’m a legit blogger” mom. A line created by my husband defending the “you have a blog?” inquiries at a work dinner.
I also like being able to turn it off. Like those days where I laze around, go to the gym, get my nails done and leisurely pace the aisles of Target at 2 pm on a Wednesday. I have those moments too. Even Diego’s Rescue Pack must get tired of being activated all the time.
Even Rescue Pack can’t get out of Target without spending at least $100.
My version of adventure is finding new and different outlets for myself. Outlets for my brain, my body, my future. I like having challenges outside of putting together 3-D puzzles that a three-year-old should be able to do, but I can’t seem to figure out. It’s nice to say I was elected to something that I believe in, and to have the ability to help out another organization with skills I learned on the job.
The six-month bug is itching me bad. Now that I’ve got a little momentum behind me, I like the thought of being busy with something that requires me to use Excel spreadsheets again. Just as long as it doesn’t interfere too much into my time with the world’s best sidekick.
I’d take a two-year-old over Baby Jaguar any day.
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