Epiphany
Having spent the past two days lolling around the house, doing this and that, straightening up and putting things right and hanging out with my dog (who, it turns out, is an excellent companion) I've come to a realization. I do not miss work. Hmmm. Strange...
I've always kinda looked down on women who did not work. I always thought that having a job was the only thing that counted as real work. But over the past few years I have learned that just keeping a household running smoothly is a full-time job in itself. No, I'm serious. Making sure you do it right is a time-consuming and utterly worthy pursuit. And don't even mention the raising kids part. I honestly think that the ideal situation for everyone involved is for Mom to be home at least until the kid is in school. It's just too hard to do it any other way. And by hard I mean hard on Mom, not the kid. This is not to say that it can't be done. Millions do it. My own mother did it. But it is incredibly difficult. I don't know how they do it. And those are the ones who are married. I have no idea where single mothers get the energy.
But slowly, over the past year or so, I have come to realize that I could easily quit working and never look back. I gave it some thought yesterday and decided that the ultimate situation would be that I have won the lottery and, by doing so, have met my lifetime commitment to contribute to the household finances in one fell swoop. So I can choose to stop working for money without feeling guilty that I'm selfishly affecting our quality of life or ability to retire comfortably. I would also need to do something that I felt was worthwhile. I have settled on the perfect occupation -- volunteering to train seeing eye dogs. This would be something worthwhile that would allow me to be with dogs and help people at the same time, yet it would be a volunteer thing. I would do this very part time, like four hours a day. I would spend the rest of the time remembering people's birthdays, cooking creative, healthy meals, keeping the house running smoothly, doing errands, buying Christmas gifts way ahead of time, and taking the dog for nice long walks. (In other words, all the stuff I usually do, without having to work a full-time job on top of it.)
I guess I'd better start buying lottery tickets, then.
8:20:31 PM 
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