After more than a year of job searching, I walked into my job one day and quit.
It seemed like a dream. The day I quit wasn’t dramatic; but nonetheless, had an impactful feeling I had always envisioned.
I felt free. I felt like a large weight had been lifted off my shoulder. I felt like stress that had dragged me down for years had suddenly washed away.
I also felt scared. I felt nervous. I felt like this was a big mistake.
When I quit my job, I didn’t have any plan of what was ahead of me other than being a mom. I knew that’s what I wanted, though, but even when I took the leap of faith, I still didn’t know if it was the best decision.
I had spent my life so far being a working mom – usually more than 40 hours a week, bringing work home and putting work before my kids. Over the past year, I had been through different struggles that made me finally realize I needed to reset my priorities – with the first one being my kids.
I had been looking for jobs for a better work/life balance but nothing seemed to fit. Just as COVID-19 was changing our lives, I decided I needed a change. For our family, it wasn’t going to make sense asking my husband to be a full-time worker and homeschool parent. Between that, babysitting costs and driving costs, we decided that if there was a better time to completely go for a change, it was now.
I’ve learned a few things from my time at home that I think are beneficial for any mom struggling with the same decision I was facing:
- Is this the right time? Probably not. But WHEN will it be the right time? Who knows. Take that leap of faith.
- What about finances? Look at your budget. Can you afford to stay home? Can you try and find employment that will let you work from home? Or are you just ready for a new career?
- Where is your support? My husband was supportive of my decision because he knew how unhappy I was in my life. Now a few months in, a lot of things have changed, but one thing has definitely been for the better – I don’t dread waking up to go into a job each day and leaving my kids behind.
I’m now lucky to be working for two employers that allow me to do a majority of my work from home. I wake up, spend time with my kids, multi-task time with my kids and work throughout the day and night, and put them to bed while I’m a whole lot less stressed. This is the first time in my working career I haven’t felt guilty doing work from home because that’s my job now. And as my kids put it, “It’s nice that we get to see you more, Mommy.”
That alone is worth more than any paycheck.
