Being A Working Mom

I have something to get off my chest.

Contrary to popular opinion, I work for a living and it’s not because I hate my children and need to get away from them.  In fact, it’s possibly for the opposite reasons.

I freaking adore my kids.  That’s probably a given for the 99% majority of parents right?!  (If that’s not the case then, um, you should maybe talk to someone about that.)  But I find that personally, I’m a better parent if I can drop them off at school and go about my day talking to other adults and having (and meeting) deadlines.  Simply put, even though all I ever wanted to be was a Mom, I now enjoy finding my worth in more than just that.

This is obviously not the case for everyone right?  I mean thank goodness for that.  Everyone is strong in certain things and weak at others.  Like, imagine being a Doctor.  I COULD NOT do it.  As much as I love and care for other people and the situations that they find themselves in, I could not physically touch people all day.  I would go absolutely mental.  Because – bodies are weird.  Gross man.  What’s my point, uh, well, I just feel that if staying home with your kids is something that you want to do that’s freaking awesome, but if you feel like working is your calling then that’s freaking awesome too.

And guys, let’s also not ignore that right now in our current economic climate, it’s almost impossible to have a single income family when you have three kids and a house that you need to pay off.  Never mind having to like, feed them and stuff.

So let’s not get caught up in what people think we should do, instead let’s do what works for our families.  And that changes for every family.  No judgies.

Moral of the story, I work and I enjoy it.  Which is great, because even if I didn’t enjoy it, I’d have to do it anyway.

Thankfully even though it takes all the effort in the World to get me out of bed in the morning, by the time I have slapped on my make up and gotten the kids out the door, I’m already looking forward to getting to work.  Not because there’s going to be coffee waiting for me (although let’s not discount that) but because I enjoy my job.

I find it so funny when people I meet through the blog ask me what I actually do for a living.  I can see that they’re picturing some kind of creative thing – content writing, maybe marketing or I don’t know.  One of those kinds of jobs where you get to write all day and have purple hair.  When I tell them that I am in fact an insurance broker and co-own my own business, the shock is quite evident on their faces.  Sometimes I just slip it into conversation for fun, just to see their reactions.

The more shocked reactions I’ve been getting, the more I’ve realised that I don’t talk about the side of my life that is almost as big as being a parent.  It takes up about the same amount of thought space and time to do it, so it’s a pretty big deal – as I’m sure your work is for you.

Anyway, I landed in insurance like anyone else – completely by mistake.  (I have yet to find someone who got into this on purpose).

I’d wanted to do something in the CA field or maybe even law, but my main priority was getting married.  So after a year of college I went out to get a job.  It really didn’t matter what it was actually – I was open to anything in the office management space.  Organising things was one of my strong points back then (before I had babies and it all went to pot), so it felt like the right fit for me.  After a couple of interviews I landed up at Incompass and everything fell into place for me.

Initially I was the receptionist/office slave and it was literally just the two of us.  Jan (my now partner) and I.  We even shared a computer for a while because he was mostly out seeing clients and what what.  As the years went by, we employed more people and I just naturally grew into the position of the right hand and when the opportunity arose to buy in, I literally jumped at the chance.

Now it’s been 10 years!  Ten whole years.

And I still really enjoy what I do.  Which, in case you’re wondering is the short term insurance side of life – you know car, house, contents, all risks and all that kind of thing.  I really, really enjoy finding my clients better cover than what they currently have – it’s a thrill every single time.

(In fact you should chat to me about that if you’re looking – it won’t be weird – I promise).

I guess the whole reason that I am sharing this is that working is a huge part of my life and I don’t talk about it nearly enough considering how much it affects my day to day.  But also, Kyla, Riya and Knox, if you ever read this – it’s important to think outside the box – there are SO many more jobs out there than just your traditional “big money” jobs.  You can do something you enjoy and make money from it (well, hopefully).

What do you do?  Do you love it?  How did you get into it?