As a single mom, I returned to work when my son was 6 months old but didn’t take on a full-time position until he was 5. During the first few years of his life, I managed multiple part-time gigs, including cleaning homes and offices, teaching yoga classes, doing childcare at a pre-k, and working at the library. At one point, I even started pet-sitting. I still managed to work 40 hours a week with all these jobs combined, but working multiple part-time jobs allowed me to spend the most amount of time with my son.
During that time, I was still taking online classes and working on completing my degree. The plan was to eventually obtain a teaching position once my son started kindergarten and was in school for most of the day. I didn’t want to work a 9-to-5 job before then because I wanted to spend as much time with my son as possible while he was very young. By working a few different jobs, I was able to make my own schedule and work mostly — if not completely — when my son was with his father.
If I did have to work when my son was with me, I did so only while he was in his morning pre-kindergarten class.
Designing my schedule, feeling like my own boss, and working multiple positions actually felt really good. Since I have a lot of interests, I liked getting to teach yoga classes a few times a week and also spend some time working at the library. I even enjoyed my time cleaning, as I found it therapeutic and rewarding, because it felt like I was helping people.
Money wasn’t overly tight, but I sometimes wished I had more income. The biggest downside was that I didn’t have the benefits of a full-time position, mainly health insurance. At the time, my income was high enough that I myself did not qualify for Medicaid, but low enough that my son did still qualify. I knew he’d lose that coverage once he turned 5. I thought that when I became a teacher, I would not only be making more money, but I would feel more secure in finally having benefits for my son and me.
I quickly regretted taking on a full-time position
I was hired as a teacher when my son was halfway through Florida’s voluntary pre-kindergarten program and would be starting kindergarten in the fall. I was relieved at first to have only one job to keep track of, but it didn’t take long for me to realize I wasn’t thrilled with the change I’d made. Even though my son was now in kindergarten for most of the day, I still had to sign him up for aftercare, as his day was over at 2 p.m., but mine wasn’t over until 4. I didn’t like being unable to pick him up at the end of his school day like I once had. Even though I was working the same amount of hours before I started teaching, it was the first time I felt the pangs of working motherhood.
I was proud of myself for being able to get benefits for both of us, but by the time the health coverage was taken out of my paycheck and I paid for my son’s aftercare, I was making the same exact amount of money as I was before I started teaching. It was a bitter pill to feel as though I hadn’t increased my income at all and was now spending less time with my son on top of it. I wasn’t as happy on a personal level, and that affected my mood outside work.
After six years in my full-time job, I went back to working part-time jobs
I was surprised that I felt far less fulfilled from teaching than I did when I had a variety of roles. Even though I enjoyed aspects of the job, I wasn’t used to having to be in any one place for that long every day. Sometimes, I would actually feel bored and catch myself fantasizing about the life I had given up. For sacrificing those after-school afternoons with my son, I wasn’t even any better off financially. Most of all, it killed me that I wasn’t as happy as I was when I worked in a handful of different roles.
Eventually, after six years of teaching, I accepted that full-time work wasn’t the right choice for me as a mom. I’ve learned that working several small jobs ultimately works better for me than one traditional full-time job, but I wouldn’t have known it wasn’t the right fit for me without trying it.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find a part-time job that offers health insurance benefits. If I had not remarried a few years ago, I might have had to continue teaching simply for health coverage, but my son and I are now covered through my husband’s job. I’ve returned to working part-time, and my overall income is less on paper, but I feel like the energy I’m regaining and can put back into motherhood is more than well worth it.
