Transition from Career to Part time

[StantonHyde]

In the past two years,(after birth of first child), I have transitioned from 38 yo "career woman manager" to mom/part time work. My question is for other part-time work moms: how have you made friends/contacts for your "at home" days? What do you tell yourself to keep yourself in balance with the "this isn't my dream job, but I LOVE being with my kids and I would go nuts if I stayed home full time, so is this is as good as it gets" waffling? Have you considered working even less with baby #2? All thoughts, ideas etc appreciated!!

Some background: I left because I was to exhausted to "have it all" and my new boss was horrendous, so that wasn't the best scenario. I immediately found work with the same company (I work for a large state university and medical center/hospitals). I now work 3 days a week for a boss who doesn't care when I come or go and who thinks I do a great job. My peers think I do good work. I love the interactions with adults and having coffee without somebody whining for some. The work content is "regulatory compliance". Just imagine if you were really good at cleaning toilets, and you had to have critical experience to do that job, and everybody else hated it so much that they would pay you really well to do it. AACK!

I like talking to the "work away from home moms" but I don't see play dates happening here. I want to reach out to SAHMs and/or other "part time work moms" because I do have 2 week days plus weekends where I would love to socialize. (I have got to make new friends--all the old ones are career/no kids etc. I love them, but they aren't going to the park and they really don't want to listen to me whine about transitioning to sippy cups!) How do I meet them?

[C99]

I met almost all of my mom friends through classes -- can you sign up for a Gymboree, or music or parks & rec class on your off days? What about library story hour -- I met someone 2 weeks ago at the library and we're planning to do a playdate. That is a really good way to meet people. Also look for parent organizations in your area. Here in Chicago, there are a few that you can join that have drop-in playdates, etc. You might also consider posting an ad looking for some moms on Craigslist, your local Starbucks, etc.

I work part-time, too, but it's very, very part-time, with erratic scheduling. I can schedule my own time and work from home. There are 3 other women in my playgroup who work full/part-time (one is a prof, so she has off-campus days, and one works 4 days/week at a hotel) and to be honest, we almost never talk about work.

[Elilly]

I work set days (T, Th, F) so I have a group of moms that I have met at Monday activities. We live in Indianapolis and there's a free publication called Indy's child that lists all sorts of activities for kids. Maybe your city has one as well? This is how I found other moms. Most of the activities occur on the same day of the week month after month so it's nice to see each other a couple times a month and catch-up. I have never done the Gymboree thing as it is a little more structured than what I'm looking for right now. I am looking at enrolling in a similar type program thru the public library system. I also plan to join the K of C pool next summer (I just couldn't see my self going that much this summer as I am now 9 months pregnant!) This will be my first winter being PT so I know that I will need a network of other moms to help keep my sanity while we're stuck inside. HTH!

[mudder17]

I met some mother's at our hospital's support group and we started an e-mail list. Eventually, I created a mailing list on our ISP and we've continued staying in contact and getting together every once in a while. Some of the mother's work part-time and some of the mother's work full-time, and some mother's have become SAHM. But we try to arrange monthly get-togethers (without kids) as well as playdates, both during the week and also on weekends. We did this because our schedules vary so much and we wanted to have as many mothers join us as possible. So it's definitely possible to socialize with friends who are also part-time, full-time, or SAHM's.

I think without the e-mail list, I would certainly not be getting together with as many mother's (and babies) as I have. I've also developed contact with new (or fairly new) mothers at church. Again, keeping the contact with e-mail (during the week) has helped developed relationships during the times we can't actually get together. I'm also fortunate that one of the mother's in my neighborhood had a son 4 weeks younger than DD. So we take walks over there several times a week. She's one of the mothers that works 4 nights a week.

I'm planning on enrolling DD in swimming lessons, possibly this fall/winter. I'm sure I'll meet other mother's then as well.

Good luck!


Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya
born 22 February 2004

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