Is Choosing Family over Work Financial Suicide?

One experience taught me that choosing family over work was worth more than money.

I have achieved success as a parent by being resilient and adaptable. The wrangling of emotions and personalities has taken years to balance. As a stay-at-home parent, I feel stability strongly falls on my shoulders. Rewards of my adaptability are apparent. After shifting kids from hip to hip, I learned to cook and the kids learned to walk. After shifting kids from state to state, our family learned to manage a budget and the kids learned to adapt and to be resilient. Now, I am shifting from parent to employee part-time.

“I can assist you, so I will.” This phrase is my model for part-time employment, as a stay-at-home mom. I perform tasks for friends, family, and co-workers daily. Whenever a co-worker or supervisor asks for my assistance, I comply. Why? Simply, because I can; I take nearly every request as an opportunity to learn. Every job is a learning opportunity. I am working for $0, only experience!!! Occasionally, a task requires my ability to work under pressure of kids. I postpone tasks that require my undivided attention to the following morning before my kids wake. Between 4 am and 6 am, golden hours shine brilliantly upon my efforts toward business ideas.

Recently, I made a choice to cut my career short a leg for the sake of my family’s emotional wellbeing. I committed to preparing for an event. --- For free, I gathered critical information for registration, created and edited web pages and a flyer. I said, “IF possible, under good family circumstances, I will attend.” I found out that a supervisor may not hear you correctly, when you use a conditional statement about family. My supervisor expected me to attend... I chose to stay with my family instead of attending the event. Choosing family over work was a difficult choice to make. Consequences of not furthering my career, directly impacts the family’s financial bottom line. In these economic times, my choice of family over business could be financial suicide.

Surprisingly, I am not full of regret. In this circumstance, cutting an opportunity short was the right thing to do. I feel a great sense of loss because I would like to take every opportunity and fulfill every supervisor’s need. However, I would have taken a step down as a leader of my family. Money cannot buy my family’s respect. I gain respect from my kids and husband for putting them first. I empower them and inspire them to make choices based on their gut instincts.

Can you empathize with my experience? Do you have an experience that is challenging you to choose between family and work? Thank you for sending your thoughts my way!
Learning to Balance: compassion, love, and joy

~Christy Camp, RYTT

1 comment:

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