Working Mom, Part 2

A lot of the blogging about being a working mom is on the negative side, and I will admit that I've been in a this-job-is-stupid-and-I-want-to-quit kind of a funk for the past few days. But today, I was thinking about all the good things that have been added to my life since I started working.

Nothing beats the way Laurel greets me at the end of the day when I pick her up, and I'm surprised at how good it feels to have other adults get to know her. Watching her daycare teachers figure out her personality and hearing them talk about her first steps or learning to wave with a sense of pride boosts me up a little each day. Miss Sue and I are currently bonding over our shared struggle to get Laurel to sleep.

M and I are starting to get organized. We lived something of a carefree life before Laurel joined us, and while I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything, we did feel a bit scattered from time to time. Getting organized is more than just knowing what's for dinner. We know what needs to be done in a day (even if we don't always get it done). Nobody runs out of underwear. My car always has enough gas in it. (That never happened before...I used to drive so infrequently that I paid no attention to the gas gauge and ran out of gas on more than one occasion.)

M and I are also starting to live more purposefully. We have an idea of where we'd like to be in a few years. Putting Laurel in daycare was not an easy decision for us, and we didn't want to do it unless it was actually going to make things better for our family. Going to work is more than just getting a paycheck, every dollar I earn gets us closer to a better life.