As I clicked on the ‘Publish’ button of the last blog post, it struck me that I had written quite a few posts here this month. I saw that I had written 14 posts so far. A scroll down the archives showed the last time I had written these many posts was in October 2013!
Rereading those posts now (Yes, I like looking back at the times that were), I remember how happy I was back then about finally joining a Masters Degree course, how happy I was at my work, how happily I was enjoying the time with my daughter and how confused I was about what to do with my job – to resign or to patiently wait to get a transfer to Singapore. I was having such a great work-life balance then that for a mother with a toddler, that seemed like the perfect place to be. But family takes precedence to me anyday and a series of circumstances eventually had me choosing to take a break and I resigned my job.
Today, I am sailing on a similar boat as during that period. To get back to a full-fledged corporate career or not? I fully know the demands of a full-time software job and I also know what my responsibilities are as a mother. Forget the routine eat-sleep struggles, I just love spending time with my children. But there is also this urge to do something other than just household chores. I was really good at the work that I was doing earlier and I would love to write an ArcPy script or a .java class or two as part of my daily routine.
Am I fully ready to devote a majority of my time to my career is the big question that I ask myself? Any full-time job will include a good chunk of commuting time too and I will also have to keep that in mind.
An avid Google-Search lover that I am, I have been seeing several job opportunities with flexible schedule and telecommuting options. Reading Sara Blanchard’s ‘The Flex Mom’ earlier this year, I just knew that the flex mom is precisely what I am aspiring to be. Will any of these jobs with flexible schedules be suitable for me?
I also know my recent personality trait of letting my stress out in the form of non-stop chatter or yelling or polambal to my family. All thanks to the throat problem, I am working on overcoming it and am improving. But if more craziness gets added to my schedule, will I easily get back to my old habits full-fledged? Or will having something else to work on help me relax?
I hear contrasting opinions all around – several SAHMs like me say that my kids are still too small and I should wait for at least a year or two and then revive my career and many working women say that I should take the popular option in Singapore of hiring a helper and start working right away.