work outside the home

Yesterday, I wrote a to-do list post and mentioned that I had to go to work. Apparently, this was news to some of you. I thought I’d share some mundane details of my life just in case you are interested.

I started this blog in April of 2009. My daughter was 7 months old and I desperately needed a creative and social outlet that would work around my new Mami-hood lifestyle.

At the time, I was working about 20 hours a week from home as an independent contractor doing “translation” style-work, but not really. It was more like I would listen to a computer generated voice and give feedback on whether or not a person with an accent from Mexico or Spain would say it that way. I was also going on auditions for commercials, voice-overs, and other such things. I also had another job which I still have which requires me to work outside the home one to two days a week. I work outside the home on days that my husband is off so that he can watch our daughter. Wait, that’s not it! I had one more job where I was a personal assistant to an “important” man, which means I would buy him socks, groceries, run errands, and keep his car serviced. Oh and in addition to all that I was taking care of my daughter 5 days a week.

It sounds like a lot, but I could get most of my “work” done before my husband and daughter got up.

Things are different now. I still take care of my daughter at least 5 days a week and I work outside the home 1 to 2 days a week. I no longer have the work from home job, much to my dismay that contract ended in July of 2010. The personal assistant job ended in August of 2009. I have also not been going on auditions because of some health issues I’ve had involving my eyes, iritis and corneal ulcers to be exact. Recently, my agent asked if I was still interested in going out on auditions and I said that for now since my eye issues come and go and I happen to be pregnant that I am open to going on voice-over auditions or any gig that needs a pregnant woman with a funky left eye.

So that’s where I’m at now. I went from having 3 part time jobs to just one part time job. I’d love to find another work from home job as we could really use the income. I still love to act, but right now going on auditions and hustling for jobs isn’t really doable or I just don’t have the ganas (desire). I’m grateful for the part-time job that I do have, it provides me with a bit of income and gets me out of the home and interacting with adults, plus it’s in an arts organization so I get to see some pretty cool things.

Any questions? If you leave me a question I’ll answer it in an upcoming post.

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I work outside the home one day a week. It’s not much and that’s just how I like it. Keep in mind I also work from home (different job) about 10 -20 hours a week. For awhile, I was working outside the home 2 days a week, the days my husband has off, but it sucked because we never had any time to be together as a family. That’s when Family Sundays began.

Today, I get to work at a beautiful museum and be surrounded by art. I enjoy being away from home because it makes coming home so sweet. It’s also the only day of the week that I don’t feel “on” 24 hours. So even though I’m at work, I feel like I have the day “off”.

In the beginning, before I went back to my job outside the home, it was so hard to explain to my husband what it feels like to be the primary child care giver. I wanted him to understand that there is no downtime. Yeah, yeah, I know they say nap when the baby naps and it sounds great to stay home, but it’s not restful at all. And no, it’s not a competition, but there is just no way he was more tired.

To begin with, if you gave birth, you’ve just gone through one of the most demanding physical experiences ever. Childbirth is often equated with running a marathon, except I don’t know anyone who runs a marathon with their vagina, so I would venture to say it’s worse-much worse. Usually, after such a harrowing experience you would be rewarded with rest and lots of it. No such luck when you are a mother.

I used to wait for my husband to come home, so I could have a break. He would get frustrated because he wanted time to settle in and get food. In retrospect, I guess I was a bit harsh because I would say no and when he asked how he was supposed to eat and take care of the baby, I would say, “Figure it out! I had to.” It sounds terrible, but he doesn’t get home until 9:00 pm and I was so exhausted that I had precious few moments to do things like bathe or change my clothes before collapsing. Fortunately, things get better after three months.

We would argue because my husband would say that when he was out of the house he was working, not enjoying himself. My response was that during his day he would have at least 10 minutes when he wasn’t thinking of his daughter or what she needed, if he wanted to take a nap at lunch by himself -he could, if he had to go to the bathroom-no one would start crying. I don’t think he really understood until he had to take care of Put Pie when I went to work.

Put Pie is now 7 months old and taking care of her has gotten to be much easier and very rewarding because she smiles and is just thrilled by our company, but I still treasure the one day a week that I get to be just “me” for 8 hours.

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