Working Mummies Support Group #2

BD - That is awful! It is great that you are tackling it, but it sucks that people are like that to begin with - taking all they can get :(. Bellybelly is the perfect place to whinge. :hug:

MummaT - good luck for your interviews. What on earth kind of job requires 5 interviews??? That is just crackers.

MummyNaomi - It's a scary place to be, but I am sure something will come up soon. Hopefully you get a good response from the University! Whenever I am between jobs I am always really panicked, and then when something comes up (luckily usually quite quickly) I always wish I had enjoy the break more. :rolleyes:

Peanutter - good luck with your review!

AFM I start a leadership course tomorrow. It is supposed to be really awesome although at the moment I am just wondering where I will find the extra time. I also realised too late it means taking on a project for work as well. Hmmmm. What was I thinking?

BD that's awful, what a jerk he is. Feel free to whinge away its still work related :)

Krys - I agree 5 interviews is nuts, I have decided to decline it, I just can't get past not getting (or having the option of) a lunch break, and a few other conditions I am not satisfied with
Hope the leadership course is going well.

Peanutter hopinv your review has been good today.

Another interview tomorrow morning, hopefully this one is the one, I really don't enjoy job hunting

Thanks all

Sposed to have interview Thursday but my daughter had hand foot mouth do she can't go to daycare

Hi guys! How's thing? Not much to report here. I didn't get the job I applied for - not even an interview so I was pretty disappointed. I have started a leadership course at work - I do have a bit of an issue with confidence at work and the social interaction side, so am hoping this helps a bit with that.
Anyone else up to anything interesting? :)

Nope nothing here. I got to my interview and didn't get it then had another on wed but haven't heard but not hopeful

It 2 weeks until the end of term but I'm not returning to work this year. I am going into hospital tomorrow because I'm really unwell :-(
I won't get to say goodbye to the children and families I've worked with this year.
I won't get to collect my resources before the renovations. It will be the first time I've slept away from DD since she was born and the most nights away from DP ever. It needs to be done tho. DD will be brought in so I can bf her a couple of times a day.

=( lots of love FL, that sucks. Really hope you recover quickly and its the end of the problems for you. Would skypung with the children be an option so you can say bye and merry Xmas to them?

Good idea TT. I suppose I could say to the children my stay in hospital is about my ankle.

So sorry to hear that FL. :( It's a great idea to skype. And I am sure they will miss you. I hope the stay in hospital goes OK. :hug:

Get well soon FL.

Good luck with your interviews BD and your course Krysalyss.

I have five work days left - today they asked about doing some work Jan and Feb - but I said definitely not to Jan, as cancelled childcare for DD and the work is not my sort of thing - is something where I really know what I am doing - but they want me to do it in a really lame way which won't give them the results they want but only care about tick in the box. There are a couple of people there I respect but I have now been bitten twice staying and then just given really dull work to do so won't be again. If they really want me can contact me end of Jan with a proper role.

Heya Frangipani Lou - I'm sorry to hear you're not doing well. I really hope and pray that the stay is successful and you, your DP an DD manage well too xoxoxo Much love and many hugs to you.

All the best for the interviews, the course, and the (hopefully awesome) February offer to come.

Thinking of you FL.

Good luck BD!

Hope it all pans out out for you wysiwyg! Hopefully you gave a wonderful role coming your way.

Well I'm nearly officially back in here, my 14months of mat leave is coming to an end and I'm interviewing for new jobs.
I'm on second interview for 2 jobs, I had one today and one tomorrow.
Loving the one today, and really hoping I'm successful.

Eeek, not sure how I'm going to get organised - thankfully I won't be starting any job until sometime in January, at the earliest!

FL hope you are feeling better

Sahbear good luck for the interviews.

I am still job hunting, had a phone interview/chat on Friday and another today. Have an interview on Friday for today's and should hear back on the other sometime this week.

I like the sound of the one I am interviewing for so hopefully the company is a good fit for me.

Heh mamas hope everyone survived Xmas. I'm off to interview today so keep everything crossed for me

Best of luck BD!!

Good luck BD

Good luck BD, i am off to one too. Hope everyone is doing well

Good luck MummaT

Good luck mama t

How did you go BD? I got a call about 2 hours after my interview and they put me forward to the company and i have a second interview tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed, i am so sick of job hunting

I'm not sure. I never know. They want someone to start yesterday so I don't think it will take long to let me k is

Fingers crossed they call you tomorrow with a perfect offer :)

Everything crossed for you!!

Morning! Can I pop my head in here? I was a working mummy with DD1 by choice, went back part time when she turned 1. Worked until mat. Leave with DD2 stowed inside then had to resign as we moved interstate (Melb). Wanting to go back to work after DD2 turns 1 in March but there doesn't seem to be anything open in my field. Maybe not looking in the right places, not sure. My industry is highly competitive but not big. I do a bit of freelancing for my old work but wouldn't mind a new challenge.

Are most mamas here working by choice or necessity? I may have to go back to work anyway (if I can find anything) as DH is also unemployed despite being highly experienced. :wall:

LL I work full time out of necessity, my DH works part time because of permanent injury (but not enough for any help from centrelink etc). I enjoy the time away from the kids and it helps keep my sanity. I find i get caught up in little issues being at home all the time. My marriage cant survive me being a sahm lol. I would love to work only 3 days a week but financially thats not an option.

Hi Ladylove, currently I am unemployed (since mid December) but looking for new contract starting in Jan. I have worked full-time and part-time since DD turned 1 with a break of about 16 months when had DS (I wanted to go back when he was 12 months but took ages to find work). Choice or necessity? I originally thought it was just necessity but it really is a combination of the two - we couldn't afford to live on DH salary alone for anything more than a month or two unless we moved to an area which it would make it impossible for him to have a job in the field he is in, and impossible for me to work - which wouldn't be a sensible strategy. Through working though I have realized that even if we could afford to live on his salary alone that I would still want to work, I enjoy it in the main and what frustrates me most is employers not being more flexible with less than 5 day a week options (and the government not promoting to some extent) to allow people to have the right amount of work time and home time that is appropriate for them to maintain a family.

Hi all!
I'm on the countdown back to work next week.
I was lucky enough to be offered 2 roles, so got to pick the one I really wanted

After not working for nearly 15months I'm excited!

The boys are in day care and loving it, so I'm feeling good.

Ladylove, it's a bit of both for us. To live the lifestyle we want, I need to - where we live, the holidays we take, what we want to provide for a kids, but I also like to be working.

What field are you in?

Hi Sahbear :)

I'm in the arts and I am also a writer.

Wysiwyg I have seen that two with other mothers returning to work- not as much flexibility as they expected even as long time employees returning after baby. DH has been out of work for almost 6 months after 13 yeas with his former company - we are just living off the redundancy at the moment which is a bit scary.

Us it is purely necessity. We cany afford to live soley on dh wage alone. My part time base wage is same as dh full time wage. Smart thing would be have dh be sahd, but he doesnt want to do that, he needs to get out and go to work.
Im on paid leave until Quatrk is 6 months. Im then on unpaid for another 6 months, but will unfortunately have to return sooner....if i had my way id be a sahm forever

Best of luck BD and Mumma T! I hope you both get the job you're after.

As for the reason I work - I need to. I used to have a high-paying, high-stress job, but we also had debt and bills. I didn't handle it at all well, I was very near mental breakdown towards the end. So, we sold our investment house, I quit and got a pro-rata payout and sold my shares. That reduced our debt significantly. Then I took a part time job - I now only work 11 hours a week over 2 days. I'm a completely different person now, the whole family is better off even though we're not better off financially.

What I do now, is admin for a small family company. The idea is that I will eventually be able to do every single function the owner does, but with only two days a week I'm taking a while to get there. I'm considering doing a Business Admin diploma through TAFE, then when the kids are older and I can do more, I'll have the training to back it up.

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My part time base wage is same as dh full time wage. Smart thing would be have dh be sahd, but he doesnt want to do that, he needs to get out and go to work.

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Similar here about with DH - last year despite periods of no contract and being part-time I earned more than DH. Before we had kids I earned 3 times what he did - before having children we both thought that he would become the main caregiver and I would work - but that wasn't a workable reality - we tried for a while but I couldn't do the full-time long term and he couldn't do the part-time from a personal and career standpoint (and really wouldn't have wanted to be a SAHD, one because he hasn't got the temperament and two because he hadn't developed any sort of career at that point and to be a SAHD and then try and enter the workforce at 40+ was never going to work). Short-term the best option for us financially would have been for me to stay in full time employment and for him to either find part-time or stay at home - but long-term that would have been problematic financially.

For my children I hope when they are older the situation would be a little different because currently I would be advising them to think about how well the career field they want to go into fits with a family, and also the financial earning capacity of whoever they choose as their partner if they do want children and how they would work it. When I was younger I thought people who were making career and study choices based on what would work well for family life were bonkers - now I wonder if they were the sensible ones? - however I think it is bad for society in general if certain careers are dominated by certain types/gender but to stop that you need to make more jobs more compatible with family life - and move away from the one person has the career, the other person supports them by running the family (and may do some paid work also) type model.

Totally. I was very lucky in my old job, my boss was 100% supportive and flexible although that said I didn't get paid maternity leave by my employer. But among my female working or used to be working mama friends most get the raw end of the stick. Returning from maternity leave and having to return to full time work or not return at all. Or no flexibility with regards to when they can return to work. Or returning from maternity leave but returning to a fundamentally different role, and again, with a take it or quit caveat. And these are the ones with paid leave. Essentially, all these examples mean that the women are in danger of losing control of their own careers, or at the very least, losing traction.

Hey guys. I am the full time worker and DH works two paid days and does writing on the side which we are hoping pays off in the future. We can't afford me to now work as I have a higher wage and DH has sacrificed a fair bit for my career which means he has fallen a little behind in his own. TBH I would love to work part time. I really feel the pressure of being the main breadwinner, and also my job is temporary and finishes in 6 months so I also have to be looking forward to what lies ahead trying to create opportunities, as well as all the mummy stuff which I want to do more of. I just had 2 weeks off with DS over Xmas and it was so awesome. Back to work now though :( Sometimes I just want to hide under the blankets!

I definitely couldn't / wouldn't work fulltime now that I have two bambinos.

Hey ladies, sorry for the absence.

Wysiwyg once again you speak words of wisdom. Somehow I've fallen into a position that is extremely supportive of families and parents returning from leave - certainly wasn't something I planned but I'm glad it has worked out that way.

However the heart had different ideas about a partner that would support me being at home with kids. My partner before DH was an up and coming with PwC/IBM - it wouldn't surprise me if he was the equivalent of partner by now - and he'd be earning in the range of maybe 250k by now. But he was an asshat.

My DH is lovely. He's a sparky and has the potential to earn lots but we are struggling to get the business of the ground so back to work I go.

So, to the question on working by choice or necessity? 100% necessity. Which I am struggling with.

DH and I have made a decision that I am getting out of the corporate this year. We work better when I'm at home. Like Teeki. I need to get out.

I work for both necessity and choice. Like mamma t it helps my sanity and our family is better off for it. Unfortunately in my field (insurance broking) there isn't if any pt jobs cause you have to be there for your clients :( sometimes it doesn't seem worth it when I'm going to be paying 1/2 my wage in daycare fees :(

I'm still waiting to hear and this is the part about job seeking that is the absolute pits.

How did you go mama T

I work by choice, but because I've always been the breadwinner, it's a necessity.

If I had wanted to be at home with the kids, DH would have supported it, but we would not have bought a house, and our lifestyle would be different.

But that's also probably because we've known for years and years that he wanted to be the child rearer, and I wanted to work ... perhaps if that hadn't been decided so long ago, he'd have gone into a career path which lead to earning more ... who knows?

But I work, and happily work, and then go home to my darlings :)

BD i got turned down for a job today and wont find out if i made the short list for yesterday's til end of next week. I really loathe job hunting. I will start considering long term temp positions soon. Any idea when you expect to hear anything?

Well they wanted someone to start asap so I hope not too long

One of my references called me today to say that the guy who i interviewed with weeks ago called for a reference today. Not sure i want that job mow