Comments on: Full-Fledged Life-Crisis

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:06:10 +0000

I don’t know what to say. My kids are in school and still, the day fills up with mowing, taking the dog to the vet, etc. So some days I still don’t write much. Maybe I need to be more organized?

By: M.E Ellis

M.E Ellis — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:42:51 +0000

I’ve finally got ‘me’ time to write (all kids at school, one left home) and d’you know what? I’m bored.

I don’t quite know what to do with myself at the moment, so will keep mulling ideas over in my mind until I find a solution.
)

By: Julie Long

Julie Long — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:25:00 +0000

I don’t have kids, but I can relate to the inability to allow oneself to enjoy the bit of easier-life we’ve been blessed with. I was having this discussion with my cousin and she said she has to constantly remind herself that it’s okay to just be happy. God wants us to. Since then I’ve been mentally singing that George Harrison song as my mantra:
“All I have to do, is to love you. All I have to be, is to be happy.”

Kathy, I think you are wise not to rush and fill the void. Besides, you are such a prolific writer that when you cross into that published status you’ll end up with many books on the shelves quickly, with royalties rolling in and piling up.

By the way, since you worked in education, you’ll get a kick out of this: my cousin’s daughter took her first teaching job in a remote Alaskan village — reachable only by plane or boat — teaching multiple elementary grades, plus music and P.E. She is blogging about it at http//teachalaska.blogspot.com . Really fun, interesting reading. Ah, the energy of youth! Bonus fact: though Iowa is home, she eventually wants to move to Pittsburgh!

By: Mary Witzl

Mary Witzl — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:08:54 +0000

I’ve got two angsty teenagers right now, both of them fuming and venting and giving me a hard time. Being a mother really is an important job, and it’s certainly difficult, but the payment right now is crap.

By: Kathie

Kathie — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:43:37 +0000

You are very right, Anti. I’ve known that all along, but sometimes it just doesn’t feel like the right answer.

By: anti-wife

anti-wife — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:52:59 +0000

As far as I’m concerned, being a mother is the most difficult and most important job there is. You are employed but your paychecks don’t necessarily have anything to do with money.

By: Kathie

Kathie — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 23:42:19 +0000

Jaye, I’ll meet you on the beach as I’m very much due some drinks and the servants who will bear them!
Mary, your life sounds so exotic in many ways, though I realize things are never what they seem from the outside. Good luck with those two books…they’ll find a home soon, I can feel it.
Anti-wife, you are required to appear on the beach whether you’ve met those aforementioned criteria or not! I hope my thoughts of being lost inside my own life don’t come across as trite–I don’t mean to imply I don’t have a nice life–I can’t put a price on having a husband to bring in the steady money, but it’s a weird phenomenon, like Jaye said, there’s almost this feeling that I’m doing something wrong in just living my life. I’ll figure it out soon, but seriously, there’s no way out of beach day, if only for a day….sigh, sigh, sigh…

By: The Anti-wife

The Anti-wife — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:31:13 +0000

Being single, not working is not an option for me. Sigh! However, if I win the lottery, write a huge best seller, or just finally make enough to retire, I’d love to join you and those cabana boys!

By: Mary Witzl

Mary Witzl — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:47:37 +0000

Count me in, too. I’ve worked since I was fourteen and apart from during my first pregnancy when I had no work for three months, this is the first time I’ve not had some sort of paying work. Where I live, even awful jobs are hard to find, especially given that I am an American with foreign credentials and experience, and older than most of the others who want to get back into the work force. I’d settle for part-time writing work at this point, but it is not an option. So either one of my books sells and brings in at least a pittance, or we move to another country. My husband is looking at jobs in Bangladesh, the Czech Republic, and China even as I write this…

The wine and cabana boys sound great, though. Sigh.

By: Jaye Wells

Jaye Wells — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:05:57 +0000

We’re in the same boat, sister. I’ve found some easy part time writing work that doesn’t cut into my “real” writing time. But it’s scary to go “all in” with the novels without any assurances it will pan out. Plus, when the kiddos get older there’s a weird thing that happens. You suddenly have more time for you and it feels wrong. There’s guilt there for some stupid reason. Just remember that one day, we’ll be drinking wine poured by twin cabana boys and we’ll laugh over how silly we were to worry.