Work/Career
Since graduating from university with a B.A. honours degree in Psychology and B.A. in Women’s Studies, I’ve been a work-outside-the-home-mom, stay-at-home-mom, and work-at-home-mom!
I couldn’t say that any one of those roles was more challenging than the other – they all come with positives and negatives. And every job (including being home with young children full-time!) involved hard work and dedication.
I originally set out with the goal of earning a PhD and becoming a psychologist. Over the years, my priorities and aspirations have shifted as my family and my health have gone through changes. After spending many years working in the field of Psychology and Counselling, I moved into the field of Administration and made the switch from private sector to public sector.
As a WOHM, I’ve worked for the University of Ottawa, Ceridian Canada, Health Canada, Canadian Blood Services, and the Senate of Canada. I’d say the best part of being a WOHM is seeing that paycheque; it’s a really tangible reminder of your value and worth. There’s no question you’re contributing something to society. It’s also wonderful to have benefits, and I admit that I like having an excuse to buy new clothes to keep a professional look.
As a SAHM, I always took that role very seriously and did the best I could for my children’s education and well-being. While home with them, I would take them to playgroups and activities such as the library and museum. I was fortunate to get to be home with my daughter for her first 7 months and home with my son for his first 12 months! I’ve also taken time off between jobs over the years to spend time focusing on the kids. I find that the main challenge of being an at-home mom is the lack of dependable breaks… there are a lot of circumstances that are outside your control. The perks though are worthwhile: getting to see your children grow and develop is really a wonderful gift.
I’ve tried many different WAHM projects over the year, including being an independent consultant for Partylite (1998-1999) and Creative Memories (2003-2004). During my pregnancy with my son and his first year, I worked from home providing transcription services. Over the past decade, I’ve dabbled in graphic and web design, creating promotional materials for student centres on campus, and then hand-made cards and invitations. I started learning HTML and web design in the mid-1990s and by 2002 was starting to build professional websites for myself and other business owners. Eventually launched my small business, KStar Design.
I also spend a great deal of my spare time doing volunteer work. I’ve been running The Young Mommies Homesite (at youngmommies.com) for over a decade years and it’s a large part of my work time, even though it’s not a paying job. Through running the website, I’ve learned a lot about working with a team to build and maintain a successful support organization. Now that I’m not really in the “young mom” age group, I am glad there is an amazing Team of volunteers who have taken over the day-to-day business of running the community aspect of running the site (via the YM Boards) while I’ve stated on in my role as everything from site designer to advertising representative to publicist to content manager and article writer!
Presently, I’m focusing on growing my design business as much as possible in the hopes that I can work from home and spend time with my children while trying to cope with my post-traumatic pain syndrome (from being hit by careless drivers in 2000 and 2008). As the years continue and my awareness of Fibromyalgia and similar conditions grows (and I realize how permanent a condition they are), I lose hope that I’ll ever get better. If somehow a miracle happened and I was able to recover to the point where I can walk normally, sit without pain, and drive comfortably, I would love to pick up where I left off in my career. I felt like I was just getting started!
But until then, I can’t even think about going to work outside the home if I can’t even manage taking care of my home and family life and barely being able to drag myself through my waking day without a regular time I can commit to design or volunteer work each day or week (which is my current miserable existence, unfortunately). On an average day, I’m lucky if I can manage a load of laundry and making 1 card in between the grogginess and pain. See my new Chronic Pain info page for more information on my story…
