S/O career/sacrificing your family?

[SM23Mama21]

If you do work, would you mind sharing what you do and how well it does/does not work with your family?

[kijip]

I direct Development and Marketing efforts for a non-profit.

It works well with my family life.

[daniele_ut]

I work in the field of entertainment/broadcast lighting. Until October I was working in a large performing arts/broadcast facility where I had been for over 5 years. I was offered an opportunity to work out of a home office doing sales and project management for a company that sells lighting systems to the entertainment and broadcast markets and I decided to take it because I knew that it would be a better choice for my family. The job has more flexible hours, I work a bit less than full time with benefits and I am making better money. My kids still go to Pre-K and daycare because I am in and out of the office on job sites and sales visits on various days, but when they are sick or we don't want to go anywhere, we have the luxury of staying home while I work.

I have to admit that working from home is harder than I ever thought it would be. It has its benefits, believe me, but it can be really lonely and isolating sometimes. I have wonderful friends at my old job and I miss them a lot. I do still work there on a limited basis for certain events, but it isn't the same!

[egoldber]

My job itself is very family friendly. It's the commute that makes things a killer for us.

I am a statistician for a federal agency. I LOVE working for the government. Good benefits, mostly good people, very family friendly. I am not at a high level and may not ever be, but I'm OK with that. I'm doing interesting, meaningful work even if it isn't very glamorous.

Pre kids I was on a management fast track at a biotech company. It was a fun ride, but it would have been terrible with kids.

[elephantmeg]

I'm an RN and it works really well. I think because it has traditionally been a woman's job and is set up that way. Full time/part time/as needed. Hospital vs clinic vs school or home health-you can pretty much find a job that will work for your life. It's not easy but I love it!

[hillview]

I run a presales team for a software company. I work from home or I travel. I can more or less decide when I want to travel (been in same company for 7 years). It works very well for us -- I can be flexible (go to doc appts, go to school events, pick up DS1 in a pinch etc).

/hillary

[vludmilla]

I am a school psychologist and it works out very well for me. I have a flexible schedule when I need it and my commute is 15 minutes or less. I also have a lot of time off and that helps take the edge off of not being home with DD which is what I would really prefer in an ideal world.

[cvanbrunt]

College professor. Works very well. Don't get paid squat for the amount of education and debt incurred but we don't have to save for college and I know the girls will get a great education. Plus summers off!

[bubbaray]

I am a lawyer. It works well for my family because of the specific path I am on right now, plus I *make* it work, KWIM?

Of course, I am always completely stressed out and overwhelmed. But, I am like that just by nature.

[scrooks]

I'm a civil engineer. Right now I work part time. Before my kids were born and I worked full time I was on a management track. Now I'm not really able to manage projects now, which is actually fine with me. My boss has actually been super flexible with me, which is great. It works but I'm not sure how well. Sometimes I love it. Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing a good job either place. The jury is still out.

[KHF]

I'm a systems engineer at an investment firm. It's a small IT department (2 programmers, 1 network admin..also my boss... and one other person), but it's a relatively small firm too, so we have a lot of flexibility. I've been here almost 13 years, so I get a good bit of vacation as well. It's also only about 15 minutes from my home and our children's daycare. I also have the ability to work at home if I need to.

Overall, I'd say it's a good fit. I rarely have to work extra time...I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've worked on the weekends or late. I don't know how much opportunity for growth there is. I don't want to be "the boss" of the IT department, so I've probably gone as high as I can. They do still continue to give me decent raises and up my bonus multiplier, so I can't complain. I also get to work 7-4, so I get to pick up my kids by 4:30!

[wendibird22]

DH and I are both in education. Me in higher education and DH in K-6. It works well because we both have bosses that value family time. My job is more flexible than DHs in regards to having to come late, leave early, take the day off, etc to care for the kids. We both work 10mos a year (although are 2 months off are different) and some vacation during the year. DH has a lot of take home work during nights and weekends and I have nights/weekends that I have to work but we make it work.

[MoJo]

I only work about 10 hours per week as an office admin for the same company where I worked before DD was born.

It works great for me; DD and DH think they would prefer me to be a SAHM. (I know I'm a better mom and wife when I get a little time away, and I know I wouldn't get any time away unless I worked, so that's why I say they *think* they'd prefer it if I stayed home.)

I'm told by friends who are further along in child-raising that it gets easier to work AND/OR stay at home full time once the kids are older.

[trales]

College Professor - part time. It works very well for us. I am hoping to move to full time soon. Full time would include a lot of evening classes and give me three days a week at home.

[amandabea]

I work in HR. I LOVE my job, but I have had very long hours for over a year now and I'm pretty much exhausted all the time. I do work from home when I can, but that has become somewhat rare. And in the next year to year and a half we'll be moving across the country for my job. My job provides most of our income as DH's work has slowed a lot over the past couple of years due to the economy. He probably won't work when we move and it will be tight financially, but hopefully the move will position me for a promotional opportunity.

I totally agree with this comment...so me. Sometimes I wish I had the option to work less or even PT, but I don't think I could do it and from a financial perspective it's just unrealistic now.


Of course, I am always completely stressed out and overwhelmed. But, I am like that just by nature.

[gordo]

I am lucky to have a job I love that also allows me to have a lot of time with my family. I am a school social worker, so I work teacher hours. Contract hours are 8-3:30pm, but I usually work 7:30-4pm to get things done. Some days are longer due to meetings, crisis, etc but I am typically home with my girls by 4:30pm. Then have all school holidays and summer off.

Of course my quality of happiness has increased 10 fold since I moved closer to my work. My old hour and a half commute is now 15 minutes! It makes me a much happier mom and employee!!!!

[sste]

Also a professor, great hours. You can solve the money issue if you become a professor in law, business, or engineering - - pay is way higher. Logistics are an issue though -- you can't move easily to be near family, etc.

[smilequeen]

When I worked, right after I had DS1 I was a dentist in private practice. I worked part time and it was not great for me. The other dentists were upset that I didn't want to come in all the time on my days off to take care of little things. I was working on higher end stuff and I didn't really need the income. I just felt like I was leaving Simon for no really good reason. So one day I got fed up and I called DH at lunch and said I wanted to quit, but I didn't know what I was going to do and he said "quit and we'll figure it out" :) Love him :)

I finally settled into working part time with low income/at risk kids. I did a lot of OR work and a lot of stuff that broke my heart. It didn't pay well. But I was proud of what I was doing, I felt like it made a difference, and I felt like my children would be proud of me too. It worked out very well.

We decided to move and I am not currently working. We've had delay after delay getting our new office built and DH has to go back and forth from here to our previous office. After a year off, I may not want to go back...

[ArizonaGirl]

Currently work as a pharmacy technician, (while I have a B.A. and an M.S. in Biochemistry) I am trying to find a job, but in this economy research is the first money to get yanked...

Anyways, I work the swing shift (3:00 - 11:30 pm) and my DH works for the school district in the IT department (7:30 - 3:30), it works great for childcare because my mom watches DS for the hour and a half overlap. However, it is killing me because I sleep on average 5 hours a night and DS is not a napper so I never nap.

Hoping this schedule will change if I EVER find a new job, but for now I do feel good about the time we spend with DS. Although it sucks that I am not home many evenings and I have to work every other weekend (hospital pharmacy - 24 hours).

:D

[kmm]

Being a working mom, I feel like I have the best of both worlds. I am in elementary education, so I have summers, vacations, and snow days at home. It only takes me a few minutes to drive to school and work 8:00 to 4:00.