The Best of Both Worlds

I have been a stay at home mommy since the day I found out I was pregnant with Remie. I really enjoy spending my days teaching and nurturing my children. I have never missed working and I never thought that I wanted to go back to work. 

Then one day in March Remie Sr and I discussed the option of him changing shifts to the afternoon shift at work. This would be a sacrifice because he would be gone at night but there were also benefits that we thought would be worth the short sacrifice. On Easter, Remie started working his new night shift.  One thing I didn’t realize is that if Remie is working at night then he would be home all day with the kids and I. This meant help with the kids, meals, laundry and housework! HALLELUJAH!  It also meant that I could get a part time job for extra “fun money” and not have to worry about putting my children in day care.

After much thought, I decided it was time to start teaching again. I applied to become a substitute teacher for Utica Community Schools. At first I just thought that subbing school would be a way to get out of the house. I never imagined that I would absolutely LOVE subbing!!! It is the most flexible job ever because you simply decide each morning if you want to work and what grade/subject you would like to teach. I’ll be honest, I can’t stand high school aged kids- I wanna smack them all- so I just decline all of the high school jobs that I am offered.  I also get all of the joys of teaching without any of the head ache! I don’t have to do lesson plans, report cards, conferences or deal with parents.

My favorite subbing job so far is when I got to spend time in a Special Ed preschool class. I was a little nervous when I first accepted the job because I have very little experience in Special Education. But after talking with my friend Theresa, she reminded me how much I love preschool aged children and that I will absolutely fall in love with the Special Ed class. I hate to admit it but Theresa was right!!! The class I was in was for very low functioning children.  Two of the children had no language at all while the rest of them were functioning at about the age of 18 months.  Isaac is 19 months old, so it was easy for me to communicate with the students because I just pretended like I was taking care of Isaac. The children and I connected fast and almost immediately they started giving me kisses and snuggles.  I worked on fine motor skills with a group of kids and also helped with language development.  We put train tracks together and worked on saying (or using sign language) to communicate that they wanted juice with their snack. Of course the day had it’s challenges but all in all it was fantastic. I fell in love with those kids and let their teacher know that I would love to come back any time she was in need of a substitute teacher!

When I came home I was immediately faced with the realization of how blessed my children are that they do not have to overcome even a fraction of the challenges that my preschool students do. I am so thankful that I have been given the opportunity to have the best of both worlds: I get to be a stay at home mommy and working mommy all at the same time!