Back to School...and Back to Work?

It feels like the summer raced by faster than ever, but school is back in session and my kids have polar opposite opinions on that.  

My son is in 3rd grade, and he's already complaining about how exhausting his day was and how much work he has to do.  Of course this earns zero sympathy from me, especially considering that he's had one night of homework that took him about 5 minutes to complete. My daughter, on the other hand, is in kindergarten.  Everything is new and exciting, and each day she gets off the bus and tells me that it was the best day ever. I hope she keeps that positive view of school past next week at least!

Now that the transition from preschool to kindergarten is underway, the pressure is on for me to transition from stay-at-home mom to working mom.  While I’ve loved being able to stay home since just before my daughter was born, and I would love to be able to continue doing so, it’s just not in the cards for us right now. I do admit that this job search process has already made me question whether staying home was the right decision. Especially when I discovered the new feature on careerbuilder.com that lets you see how many people applied for the same job you applied for. Let’s just say that I won’t be looking at that feature again, it’s way too discouraging! But then I look at my daughter and see how much progress she’s made over the last couple of years, and I see the wonderful friends she has from her preschool last year (which she wouldn’t have been able to go to if I’d been working full-time). I look at my son who had a chance to play sports and do martial arts last year, knowing that if I’d been working he’d have had to choose one or the other. And when I take it all in, I know that the last few years have been a gift and definitely worth the sacrifice.

So this is really a school year of transition for us here. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how the transition is going!