Part-Time Working Moms (We’re the Craziest)

You’re a woman in the work force, with a stable job.  You enjoy what you do and are happy to contribute financially.  Before you know it, you’re preggers and figuring out maternity leave, childcare and the like.  Maybe you go back to work after baby, realize it’s not worth it or you can’t stand to be apart that long.  Maybe you take your maternity leave and mysteriously never return… Before you know it you’re committing to odd jobs, side jobs, MLM gigs, and starting your own Etsy store.  Friends, we are the moms who work part-time, a category all our own.  We don’t fit in with the working moms and technically we don’t stay home (or if we do we have a few hours a day that Daniel Tiger has to babysit the kiddos).  We are jugglers, over-committers, and hot messes- however, wildly efficient.  But don’t forget about us divergents, we are the craziest moms of the bunch and here’s why:

We gotta make dat monayyyy

We tried to stay at home.  It didn’t work.  Maybe the bills were piling up?  Maybe we just got bored?  Reasons vary but we got the itch or an opportunity came along to make some money and we took it.  For me, I had a hard time not contributing some sort of income.  And I like to stay busy.  And busy with kids usually costs money (zoo, museums, Target, lunch, etc.)  Many moms can be busy on a budget, but for some reason our activities and outings always added up.  So working part time actually helped me cut down on little expenses while giving us a change of pace during the day.  

We can juggle

Think of the most frazzled, jam-packed scheduled mom you know.  Is she a PTWM (part time working mom)??  Chances are yes.  We wake up, get the kids ready, get ourselves dressed, drop some kids off, keep some kids with us, go workout, head to a meeting or teach preschool or work from home or take care of some extra kids.  Then we do naps, pick kids up, shuttle to practices, send emails or sell some makeup or wraps or probiotics while we wait, cook dinner, go to another meeting, handle our websites, and finally stay up way to late because we need to acknowledge the existence of our husbands… Go to sleep.  Wake up.  Caffeinate.  And do it all over again.  It’s a detailed dance and oftentimes we burn out and take a week to recharge.  But we get back on that horse, yes we do.  Cuz we be crayyyyyy.

We get the best of both worlds 

{Extra points if you just sang the song from Hannah Montana}  This is why we have one leg on each side of the fence: for being overcommitters we actually suck at committing to a specific role.  Working moms have a commitment to be at their job 40+ hours a week.  Stay at home moms have a commitment to be engaged and involved and present, maybe even homeschooling or educating their children.  And us?  Well some of us have a deficiency of attention span *SQUIRREL*.  Some of us have a really hard time playing with our kids more than 30 minutes a day…(THERE I SAID IT).  And still others of us have passions that don’t involve our kids but we don’t feel like giving up.  So we dabble in all of the things we love.  We do play dates and homeroom mom crap, and build forts and do the mom stuff that we absolutely ADORE (even though I just called it crap.. that’s just how I talk).  And then we turn around and we network, we teach classes, we craft, we do birth work, we sell things, and we do all of the OTHER stuff that we enjoy.  All while bringing home a few Benjamins.  See?  The uncommitting overcommitters are making more sense to you now. 

Ladies, we PTWMs are unique.  We aren’t exactly sure where we fit, and frankly fitting into a mold isn’t what works for us anyhow.  Here’s a shout out to my comrades out there- keep up the good work.  Wear all the hats, juggle all the days, love all the things.  You’re killin it.

 

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Anna Rhodes
Anna is an Oklahoma transplant originally from Washington state. While here for college she fell in love with OKC as well as her husband Mike. They have been married for 6 years and have 2 hilarious children- Bauer (4) and Davee (18 months). Anna enjoys hairstyling, working out, indoor soccer, Netflix marathons, and eating terrible things while her kids are asleep. Anna adores several parts of the metro but especially The Village, where she calls home, and the Mid-town area.

7 COMMENTS

  1. Oh, this is so me! My schedule is wild and I’m the only one who knows it well. Some weeks I have meetings and someI don’t. Some days I have one kid most of the day, and others I have no kids for a few hours. Each day is slightly different and I don’t know how to function otherwise. I’m a SAHWM – stay at home, working mom. I love my chaos…most days.

  2. I wake up by 6am get kids ready for school, walking one to kindergarten, send the other one off to middle school.I come home, start laundry, clean up house, have a cup of coffee, relax a bit..I grab lunch and go to work for 3 1/2 hours, come back home .Husband picked up kids, so I check book bags make sure hw is done. I relax a few minutes, make dinner, give little one a bath, make sure the other does her thing…Watch a little tv with hubbby and kids, put little one to bed at 9, read her a book, and then I get in my bed talk a little with my other kid, send her to bed and am passed ot by 10..I do this Monday thru Friday..but my job is connected with the school schedule, so when they have off I do too..

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