ANTI-FAMILY

News of the second job, which was to start Monday, came today as I called the staffing agency for an update. They informed me the company requesting someone to start next week simply could not accommodate my schedule. The schedule which would require my leaving work in time to be home when the children finished school in the afternoon. The schedule which is every other week due to my co-parenting arrangement. Call it whatever you would like, but to me the message is clear...they are anti-family.

Any employer who fails to allow their employees to care for their family is not one for which I wish to work. Their view of reality is skewed to the point where no allowances are made for real life circumstances. If the children were older, they would be able to stay home alone for a few hours until I finished work. They are not old enough. For a long-term job, I would consider some sort of child care but not at a price where my take-home pay was paying solely for child care. In the grand scheme of things, it needs to make sense.

Worries about my future follow me throughout the day, every day. I wonder how I will be able to provide for my family. I wonder what my next step should be. I wonder if I will have to move into a studio apartment sometime soon and sell everything I own in order to make it. A lesson to anyone considering divorce...get a lawyer no matter how much your spouse convinces you that getting a divorce without one is a better, more 'amicable' solution. In my case, my being 'nice' proved to work against me and now I find myself fighting for my future with my children.

Being a single parent is tough when the odds are against you, but more so when employers do not take into consideration an employee's need to care for their family. A family is unpredictable. Children get sick. Parents get sick. Children need to be taken care of after school by their parents and not by strangers. This is the reality of life. If more employers would realise this reality by allowing for flexibility in schedules and the option to work from home, parents would feel less stress and guilt for abandoning their families.

The ideal job would be one where I could work from home. Commute time would be eliminated and I would be able to be home for my children when they finished school in the afternoon. I am sure there are companies out there which are not anti-family and which take into consideration the realities of raising a family, particularly as a single parent. Finding such company will take time. Meanwhile, I continue my search and hope to find something soon.