I gave notice

I’ve been feeling for a while that I needed to not be working full time. WHY?

Well there are so many reasons, the main one being my family. I have greatly missed being home in the morning to send them off to school and then be home when they return to be the first to greet them and ask them how their day was.

It hit me hard this past summer when I couldn’t spend one single day with my children who were home for the summer just because I had no personal days or vacation days built up yet and the days I was earning I had to save to take a small trip in September. We all managed to take that one small vacation in September, but that was so everyone could watch me run a marathon in a different state. I’m sure they didn’t care, as such most of them told me they’d rather be in school.

The extra income has been great and some of it will be missed, but as Jason put it the other night, “More money can be made.” That made me think, Yes more money can be made, you can’t go back in time to recapture the memories you lost because you were at work all the time. Since I have the choice to be home, I’m going to do just that.

Since we don’t absolutely need the full time income (would be nice to put my children in more sports, activities, lessons, private school, get tutors, etc.) we really only need part time income to be able to pay the bills and eat. There are so many things we can do without and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to be home more. If I have to babysit, or work when they are sleeping, I’d rather do that then miss the moments when they are home awake.

Yesterday I sent in my notice to my employer that I was ready to go to part time employment and asked if there were any positions here part time. He said that this company doesn’t do part time positions anymore. I told him I didn’t want benefits, just needed less hours. Because there is nothing here for me for less hours I needed to quit my job here. I gave him a 7 week and 3 day notice (very generous I felt). My last day is December 21st so that my last paycheck will be before the end of the year and as such I will still get to spend the entire Christmas vacation with my family.
The stress that has lifted off my body has been massive. I feel so much better and I feel like dancing, although right now that would be impossible since I have a sprained ankle.

I hope to find a great part time job, however if that doesn’t happen for a while then my house will get really clean and some much needed projects will finally be completed.