{"id":75,"date":"2012-04-19T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T18:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/2012\/04\/3-reasons-i-work-for-money\/"},"modified":"2012-04-19T18:26:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-19T18:26:00","slug":"3-reasons-i-work-for-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/2012\/04\/3-reasons-i-work-for-money\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Reasons I Work For Money"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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I\u2019m joining the Patheos posts on the Mommy wars, including Rebecca Cusey\u2019s\u00a0Beyond the Mommy-Wars Bumper Sticker<\/a>,<\/em><\/div>\n
\u201cCan you cut your trip short and come home?\u201d came the woeful voice over the phone on the first day of my 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0business trip this spring.<\/div>\n
\u201cNo, I can\u2019t,\u201d I said, \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBut I NEED you,\u201d said the child. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to come home and discipline (sibling\u2019s name)!\u201d<\/div>\n
Enter a gazillion opportunities to feel guilty with even more judgments.<\/div>\n
Tina Fey writes in\u00a0Bossy Pants<\/em>,<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThe topic of working moms is a tap dance recital in a minefield.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
So join me as I kick-ball-change with trepidation. . .<\/div>\n
First, I want to acknowledge that all mothers work (with the moms in\u00a0The Nanny Diaries\u00a0<\/em>a rare exception)\u2014carrying, bearing and raising kids takes WORK, and most of us are completely exhausted by it.<\/div>\n
But I\u2019ve also chosen to work for pay outside the home throughout my entire 16-years of mothering.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why:<\/div>\n
1. \u00a0The money.<\/strong>\u00a0Let\u2019s just admit that those who can entertain the choice to stay home have the means to stay home. \u00a0There are plenty of working parents who wish they could stay home. \u00a0Many, if not most must labor to financially support their families.<\/div>\n
With our first child, health issues meant my dream of children and my husband\u2019s dream of graduate school collided.\u00a0 So we did both.\u00a0 He was willing to take out mega loans if I wanted to stay home with baby.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 I worked 30 hours\/week for family healthcare and to pay our living expenses.<\/div>\n
After our 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0child was born, my husband graduated and got a job with benefits.\u00a0 Since then, he\u2019s earned the greater proportion of our family income, but my income has still been more than helpful.\u00a0 It enabled us to buy a ramshackle home in our community, send our daughter to preschool, and go out on cheap dates. \u00a0It allows us to give more generously.<\/div>\n
2. \u00a0Because I want to.<\/strong>\u00a0I enjoy working outside the home and ministering to those outside my family and neighborhood. . . a lot. I like working with men\u2014which comes naturally in ministry but not as naturally in the mom world.\u00a0 Work gives me chances to grow and learn and bring back interesting stories to the family.<\/div>\n
Over the years, work\u2019s been a place to experience my strengths\u2014especially as my weaknesses have been so exposed in motherhood. (Despite begging God for the fruits of the Holy Spirit almost every morning, especially patience and self-control, I\u2019m still waiting on those darn fruits.)<\/div>\n
During the young kid years, when I often felt lonely and misunderstood in the mom world, my work colleagues also became my safest community\u2014they let me be a struggling mother AND a gifted and valued fellow minister, fully dimensional in a way I often didn\u2019t feel permission elsewhere.<\/div>\n
3. \u00a0Because I think God has called me<\/strong>.\u00a0 I was tempted to put this reason first so I\u2019d look more spiritual as if I\u2019ve just been obeying God all along, but I think God gives us choices and if I had wanted to stay home, I\u2019m sure Jesus would have blessed that as well.<\/div>\n
Over the years, I\u2019ve sensed God\u2019s invitation to work outside the home. \u00a0I bring something unique to the places God invites me to go, and to the people He graces me to meet. \u00a0Through both paid work and parenting, I\u2019ve felt something of Frederick Buechner\u2019s famous quote:<\/div>\n
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\u201cYour calling in life is where your greatest passion meets the world\u2019s greatest need.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m hugely passionate about my kids but my kids aren\u2019t my only passion. \u00a0Work and writing are ways I live out my other passions and try to meet some of the world\u2019s needs.<\/div>\n
As my child tried to convince me to fly home, or if that didn\u2019t work, feel guilty about it, I resisted both the shortened and the guilt trip. \u00a0I said, \u201cYou have a perfectly capable parent at home who can help you with everything you want from me.\u201d<\/div>\n
The next day, I checked in and sure enough, my husband not only capably dealt with the kid chaos, but did a better job than I would have.<\/div>\n
Now that was great work!<\/div>\n
How have you balanced parenting with a calling inside or outside the home?<\/em><\/div>\n
Why have you made the decisions you have made? \u00a0What\u2019s good about your decisions? \u00a0What\u2019s challenging?<\/em><\/div>\n
Why is this topic one that feels like tap-dancing on a minefield?<\/em><\/div>\n
This post first appeared in What She Said<\/b><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m joining the Patheos posts on the Mommy wars, including Rebecca Cusey\u2019s\u00a0Beyond the Mommy-Wars Bumper Sticker, \u201cCan you cut your trip short and come home?\u201d came the woeful voice over the phone on the first day of my 3rd\u00a0business trip this spring. \u201cNo, I can\u2019t,\u201d I said, \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d \u201cBut I NEED you,\u201d said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n3 Reasons I Work For Money<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019m joining the Patheos posts on the Mommy wars, including Rebecca Cusey\u2019s Beyond the Mommy-Wars Bumper Sticker,\u201cCan you cut your trip short and come\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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