So two interviews down and a couple more to go until I hope to get some offers for my “back to work” options.
It has been almost 4 years since I have had the task of getting up & ready for work. Hard to believe that it has been 4 years. :~) What have I been doing for the last 4 years is the first question that I have been asked. I answer proudly that I have had 2 more kids. Then the next question is “how will you handle a full-time position and your family”? Interesting question (posed by one woman and by one man). I wonder if that would have been asked if I had of been a man with a newborn applying for the position? You are right, it would have never been a consideration.
We still live in a world where Moms are assumed that their family takes precedent and that the men “go to the mine” day in and day out. My husband owns his own company and has a very flexible schedule. We have enlisted the help of a family friend to do our babysitting at our house when I do return to the workforce. Although leaving my 2 babies will be a huge adjustment for me, I did it before with my older 2. My 2nd baby was only 6 weeks old when I accepted a position that I had to train 3 hours aways for 2 months from my breastfed newborn, with my oldest child only being 1 1/2 and my husband working 40 hours a week. I think I am quite capable of handling a full-time job with a 2 1/2 yo and an 11 month old with the support system I have and as I have done it before, I am quite sure that this will be a little easier just because of their age.
I do not blame the industry for this question as it still is a “boys club” but I still have to wonder why this is a question that I am expected to be able to answer. A double income generating family is much more prepared financially for more challenges and with 4 kids, that I hope to go to College or University, my income is going to be a valued addition to our welfare for the future.
The amount of work that I will do now will be equivalent to 2 full time jobs, yes. But one of those jobs I am paid financially and the other emotionally. What a fulfilling life. Busy, but fulfilling. Going back to work will make me have to count on my family to fill voids that they have not had to do for the last 4 years, but it will make them more responsible too. The challenge of going back to work is not the work, but the balance that is needed to keep your sanity. The time around family becomes much more cherished and love filled to make up for the time that I am not around to help them with homework, read them a book, make them their favourite snack or simply hug them when they fall and hurt themselves. It is a challenge that I am up for to ensure that they all have the financial resources to ensure they can ”be whatever they want to be”!
Time for myself will be lost in the shuffle, but isn’t that what retirement is for? If I do not return to work, then retirement may not be what I hope it to be…spoiling my grandchildren 
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