Usually my hubby and i have to have a plan decided the night before if we know the kids are borderline sick (LOL)…. sometimes if Anth has no major planned meetings etc he decides to take a family responsibility day which he gets paid for (so many a year)…. or usually i take the day off and just dont get paid……. or in one of my jobs i can usually make up the hours later that week or perhaps work extra time the next week… but that depends on a generous boss….

Looking back on life before work outside the home, it does surprise me though how often i used to give my kids a day off just for feeling off or tired. Sometimes now i can be a bit harsh and hard, but perhaps thats also teaching them to struggle on despite little hardships..

With one son now travelling 1.5 hours each way to high school on a bus its even harder because we are assessing levels of sickness at 6.30 am!!! One day he called me at 7.10am as he had felt quite ill on the bus (also due to yoghurt breakky) and asked the driver to let him off at a local shop… so off i went to get him, only to later find he was just very tired and needed time out of the long days!

I would love to know how any mums decide sickness degrees with kids!Its hard enough with myself let alone kids!

Lynette

River - darn it! Should have thought of the “shaved head” idea earlier. LOL.

Tess - and you don’t always cut yourself enough slack for how much you have on your plate either!!!! You oughta be congratulated for all you do.

Lynette - how do you go when the kids get sick? Or don’t yours get sick much? A supportive hubby would be essential I imagine.

Trish - we definitely ARE!!!! I just hate the notion that once kids are all at school, mums are suddenly free to go back to work. It doesn’t always work like that (well, so far, in my experience).

Lynne - I know before we had kids and I was working, I found it quite difficult to keep the house organised. Thankfully I had 2 weeks off every 10 and used that as a catch up. I hope you have a lovely day out with your friend.

Jeanie - that’s what I’m working on too. When my kids were little I did some party plan stuff for a while and if I didn’t have a babysitter I could take them with me (although not if they were sick). I’m just glad I haven’t jumped into paid work outside the home too quickly. The results so far would have been disastrous.

Katy - I just don’t agree with forcing mums to go back to work simply because their kids are at school. And the whole “who will volunteer” is a big issue too isn’t it? Childcare is a hard one - I know I did the calculations one time (when we were trying to work out how to pay for this house) and I too would have been going backwards.

Bron - yeah, I guess that’s why I’m really thinking about it. Even with the flexibility of tractor work, it hasn’t been easy juggling sick kids and school stuff. I feel very lucky that I have such a flexible option open to me (although DH’s 1 complaint during seeding was that I was constantly having to go into town right when he needed me most lol). As for linking, I’m more than happy for you to link to me (assuming you’re not a p0rn site lol). I’ll try and check out your blog soon. Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.

Sharon - working as a way of conquering procrastination? Now there’s a thought. LOL. Lunch was awesome. Makes me feel like I’ve actually got a friend.

Amy - Yeah, there’s almost no such thing as a SAHM these days is there? We all seem to flit about constantly. I think there’s a valid point in getting a break from the kids too. I wish now that I’d done that a bit when the kids were little. I think it would have improved the time I did have with them. It can be hard when it’s so constant day in and day out.

I think you just have to and so you do. Having said that I wish I could motivcate myself a bit better, and did a bit more of the SAH part of SAHM. We are out everyday.

Some weeks are bad, some are really really bad….

I think working makes me more organised. I just can’t afford to put stuff off. I do set tasks on set days and spend a lot of time during the week folding laundry in front of the tv.

I’m lucky though, I have a very capable husband who is also very helpful. Couldn’t do it without his support.

Thanks for lunch! We should do that more often!

But you are a working mum…putting days in on the tractor. I’ve really enjoyed reading about that. I work in paid work for 25 hours a week. Enough for some meaningful work but also family and ‘me’ time (Fridays, 6 hours while the kids are at school - it flies by!) I think working is a bit like those fuzzy first days/weeks of having a newborn..somehow you just muddle through. Some days/weeks are much better or worse than others! However I’m happy with the balance in my life now but everyone’s different.

I’ve really liked reading your blog over the last six months and I’ve just started my own…flowergirl73 on blogspot. Is it okay if I put you on my ‘blogroll’? Not sure about the etiquette of these things.

Cheers bron

I’m not looking forward to my benefits being cut off once all the kids are in school - there aren’t a lot of jobs where I live, so there is low likelihood of me getting any job in school hours without paying extortionate child care costs. And older kids cost more to run. Then I’d miss out on volunteering with the school.

In fact, I’d work now but childcare for 3 kids would mean I’d be running negative!

Hope you enjoyed your ‘me’ day!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I think all mothers are working mothers - its just who pays and how much that marks the line.

Congratulations on getting a ME day! I would love to have one of those every now and then. I am actually getting to go out with a girlfriend later this month and leave our husbands and her kids home. I can’t wait to see the new do, I just went about 3 inches shorter for the summer.