Before you became a SAHM, what did u do?

Before i was a Stay At Home Mum, i worked in child care, i am a fully qualified assistant, and was studying my diploma to become a group leader when i had #2, and decided to stop.
I also used to work from home as a artifical nail technician.

What did u do before house work and kids consumed u?

I was an accountant and cake decorator, now cake decorator and SAHM - was much easier to work fulltime, but not as rewarding.

Travel. Finished highschool in 2005 and decided to spend the next few years travelling. Went to Europe, Asia and my backyard (Australian Roadtrip). DD was actually conceived the day I returned from Japan! I have since been thinking about going back to Uni once DD has started school but who knows, I have plenty of time to think about it and intend to be a SAHM at least until then.

I was a case mange. I used to case manage teams for people with Severe profound Acquired Brain Injuries. I was one of those nutters lobbying parliament to keep young people out of nursing homes. I must admit, i do miss it.

I was an Executive Assistant to the Managing Director of a wholesale distribution business. - I dont miss the long hours and demanding work, but i do miss my boss and the ppl i worked with :)

Reception work while studying to be a Travel Consultant..

Export shipping.. I was a supervisor of 4 staff so it was pretty cruisy cause they did all the work. I just had to make sure we didn't take too much cargo. LOL!

Staying at home is much harder, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

I was a behaviour management teacher (in Brisbane) - I worked as the liaison teacher at a school for students (mainly boys) who were struggling to cope with mainstream schooling due to behaviour difficulties. I did case managment mainly but worked in the classroom one day a week. My job involved lots of liaison with principals, psychologists, family and other professionals involved with our students. I ran parenting programs, assisted in reintegration of students to mainstream schooling, put together info for referrals and diagnosis and did a fair bit of counselling with each student.

I really really loved my job. As the behaviour could be quite physically violent at times, it became unsafe for me to work there while pg and we moved back to Townsville around the same time. I became an advisory visiting teacher for behaviour management and then gave it up to be a SAHM.

I have no idea what I want to do when it is time for me to go back to work. I think I am done teaching and while I love the behaviour management side of things, it can be stressful and very draining at times . . . I think I would like to try something completely different. Don't know what yet but I have a couple of years to figure it out :)

ETA: I agree, Heather - staying home is harder. I could hand my students back at 3.00pm every day and go home to have my own time and my own space. Somedays I really miss only having to be responsible for set hours every day but I love my kids and am very appreciative of being able to stay home and look after them full time. My DH is also very understanding that I don't have it easy just because I don't work anymore so that helps a lot.

i worked at the queensland museum, in the shop, but i set up the retail side of exhibitions etc.i was also 3rd year uni doing a dual degree of business/science - human resources and management / environmental rejuvination.

i do miss using my brain, and seeing results come out of the things that i do, but i wouldn't miss my kids growing up for the world. i also have no idea what i want to do when the kids go to school...

I was a vocal coach - I had my own little studio and taught singing, songwriting and performance skills :)
I dont miss working but I do miss my students (even though I keep in touch with many of them) it was a fabulous job!

I was an Advertising Sales Rep, I sold & designed ads for a newspaper. I had not been at it 12months when I fell pregnant with DS & DH decided we shld move to the middle of nowhere for his job.
Such a shame as I loooooved that job, first time I was really doing something that felt useful & challenging. Before that I worked in the Acc's Dept of the Advertiser/Sunday Mail...answering phones & getting abused LOL!!!

I did miss it, so much so I went back to part time work when DS was 12months old, but he never really settled in the Daycare & there were somethings I didn't like about it....so home fulltime with him now. Thinking about studying nursing part time for when all the kids are at school.

I was (still am!) an early chilhood teacher. I have gone back to work part time as a helper, but sometimes work full days as a teacher. I love my job, but it's hard some days to deal with 0-5yr olds and clean all day at work, and then come home to my own two monkeys and grotty home!! I do wish I could still be a SAHM, at least until DS is about 18mths. But it is not to be....

I use to work in retail in a baby store!! Don't miss it at all....this job is much more rewarding!!

Assistant Financial Accountant plus part-time Uni student. Almost completed my degree before DD1 came along. I do and don't miss it. Don't miss the politics, but then being a parent has its own type of politics.

I was a chemist. I did routine testing of some of Brisbanes water supplies. Don't miss the work, but I do miss being around other people.

When I fell pg with DD1, I had just started a job waitressing at a relatively upmarket local restaurant... it was kind of sad when I found out I was pg and knew I would be leaving, because the boss was an absolute champ and the other staff were really nice, I was quite enjoying the work and the environment despite the horrible hours (split shifts from 5:30am-10am, then again from 5:30pm until the last customers left and the place was cleaned up, sometimes as late as 2am).
Before that, I'd just worked in retail and hospitality (bartending, flogging CDs and DVDs at Sanity, delivering pizzas lol, that kind of stuff - anything for a bit of 'pocket money'), after a short stint in hairdressing (8 months of unpaid work experience at a local salon - I loooooved doing it but the owner of the shop had a baby and decided to sell up so she could focus on her new family, and the new owner already had staff at the ready so I was out on my backside - they could have had me for free!!).
I'm intending on going back to TAFE to finish off my beauty therapy, hairdressing and nail tech qualifications when I get into a good routine with DD2, I'm really keen on getting back into that industry when the time comes to put on the 'working mum' hat :)

LOL Erin - we would be able to work together with our jobs! I used to work for our local newspaper doing all the graphics and advertising layout once the person doing your job passed them onto me. I also did the Editors job when the editor was away on holidays etc. There was also a lot of commercial printing thrown in too and I have published a book. It was an awesome job and I loved it. Before that I was a dental nurse

I was a cake decorator in a bakery. NOthing exciting but I did love it.