Starting a New Day
The reality of tomorrow is starting to sink in for me. I will be starting to work after two months and for the first time ever I will be working a regular, full-time job outside the house. All my previous outside jobs were part-time or irregular hours for student positions and the like. While I expect to feel the transition myself, it is my family that is likely to feel this change the most.
Laura has never had a time when I did not set my own schedule based on our family situation. On top of that she is still getting used to having four kids, so this is a double burden for her.
Savannah and Alyssa will notice the difference, but I expect they will just roll with the change.
Isaac will not know the difference.
Mariah will probably take it the hardest. She was not around for my schooling so she has never known me to go away to any form of work. She was as old as Isaac is now the last time I returned from work-related travel. She is the ultimate daddy's girl and she has become very clingy in the last day or so. I have no doubt that she will adjust to this new reality as well, but she is going to notice the change and probably hate it for the first few days or weeks.
It will be interesting to see how this change affects Mariah and the family as a whole. At least with the office just over a mile from home I will not have to deal with lengthy commutes and we will have the option to visit for lunch and have the girls come see the office some time.
5 comments:
You're right that your family will notice the change in a big way. Recently, as my work schedule filled up to overflowing, I had very little time to spend with my family - usually just long enough to eat dinner each evening, then back to work. One of my boys later commented to his brother that I didn't like being at home - that I preferred to be at work.
Of course it isn't true, and fortunately, my busy schedule was only a temporary change - now I'm back to spending evenings with my family, and they know I love them more than work.
I also wanted to comment, however, on the healthiness of working outside of the home. I don't by any means pretend to infer that working away from home is qualitatively better than working in the home. But I do find it to be healthy for all involved - my kids as well as myself, and even my wife - for me to go in the morning and return in the evening. My wife knows she has complete autonomy in the home during the day. My boys learn, even just a little, that it's important for a father to earn a living for his family. My situation is, of course, the most satisfying, as I get to come home each day to a house full of people happy to see me. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say. In the case of daily, full-time employment, I'd say that's definitely the case.
Even so, a day off now and then just to hang around with the family is a great idea.
Now I don't want to sound like a one note band, but have you given any more thought to getting a scooter? A mile is a perfect drive time. Of course, you could walk it in 15 minutes, but a scooter would have you there in about 3. That means that lunches would be very easy time to see the fam.
I'll be biking to work, which will be almost as fast a commute as a scooter and the bike is much cheaper. I believe that biking is the equivalent of scooter-ing on environmentalist steroids. (Or am I mistaken?)
Excellent choice of transportation. The only reason I don't bike is that the commute is over twice as long and I really need the minutes. Also, I arrive all sweaty and in need of a change. However, I'm biking 6 miles and that's just a bit too much.
One mile on a bike is only slightly longer timewise than a mile on a scooter. On top of which, you feel great arriving at work without having gotten all sweaty and gross and in need of a change. On top of all of it, 20 minutes of biking every day will help you keep in shape over the winter for your marathon. It may not sound like much, but it adds up.
peonicus,
Agreed on all points. You can see why the bike was such an easy choice over a scooter for me.
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