Life on the other side

SIL has handed in her notice today!! and it got me thinking how brave she is and how much I admire her for doing it, SIL is younger than me and had a baby 2 years earlier than me so I admire her already and on top of that she has forged a pretty good career for herself too… fresh out of uni and after her maternity leave she managed to get a job that earned her more than I have ever earned… and I have been working for 10 years… hmmm writing that down has made me feel a bit rubbish now…. must add to list, get flash well paid career…. Anyway so she’s doing well, decides to go for a better job in marketing gets it yey!… commutetastic, city lifestyle, better money… but as time went on she began to realize this really isn’t making me happy!!! I am not seeing my child, infact a teenage girl on minimum wage probably spends more time with him than I do, and to top it all off she gets a pillock for a boss, who doesn’t get the basic fact you need to be nice to people if you want them to work hard and do a good job?? (surely that’s top of the list, on day one, of how to be a manager training?)…. so she realized something needed to change, she survived redundancies and after that things just got rougher, several peoples work piled on, more stress…. until she said stuff this, I need more in my life…. and today is the start of that new life!! Notice is in, and she is going to take some well earned time off and then embark on an exciting new life…. she going to train to be a primary school teacher and it’s so exciting and I am so pleased. She has realized much earlier in life than I did, that this is it, you get one go! so why, oh why do we spend so much time doing things that don’t make us happy…..?
and guess what….. money and status do not make you happy…. its the little things that make you happy, tickling your children in bed on a Saturday morning, watching a film together, making popcorn, running in the park as fast as you can. sharing a bottle of wine with a loved one. cooking a meal for somebody, watching your baby sleep. Oh dear I sound like a mastercard advert now….

Anyway back to the SIL, I was forced into giving up work because it didn’t make financial sense for me to go back, I know I am lucky to be at home with the kids and some days I really really appreciate it.. but SIL is so very brave she is giving up her job, and I know it has been a tough decision, and a liberating one… helped by the pillock boss, and this is just the start,…. in the beginning it will feel like a holiday, and then there will be lonely moments and moments where all she feels like she does is housework, and moments when her other half will come home and complain about his day and think she has spent the whole day with her feet up watching daytime TV, when in actual fact she will have cleaned the house top to bottom and done all the laundry and cooked several meals not to mention child care….

when these moments happen don’t forget why you decided to leave… and that the job you are doing is really valuable and important and an investment in you and your family…. Not sure if I was talking to SIL or myself there??

Any way BRAVO!! SIL, heres to you and your new life… be excited, very excited!!