Amazing Job #2

Simply Gorgeous

After I left my first amazing job, I spent two years being a full-time stay-at-home mom. This was right after Mr. C was born, the girls were both in school, and we had just moved to Tennessee--six hours from all our family. I probably could have gone right back to work, but even in hindsight I wouldn't change a thing about this time off. This was when I was a room mom and organized holiday parties at school; cooking cute cupcakes and filling treat bags with all kinds of goodies. I also helped lead two Girl Scout troops, taught Sunday School, spent every Friday eating lunch at school with the girls, and was a team mom for the soccer teams. When Mr. C turned two, one of my mom friends asked if I was going to put him in preschool. I hadn't thought about it, plus without me working we didn't have the income for it.

A couple of weeks before school started I received a phone call from the director of the preschool. The abridged version of the conversation went as follows. I hear you used to teach kindergarten. Me: yes... We have an opening for a 4 year olds teacher. Would you be interested? Me: Sure. When would you like me to come in for an interview? I don't think you understand. I'm offering you the job. Me: (thinking) Wow, you don't even know me. (Out loud) That's great! 

I began teaching part-time and Mr. C started going to preschool. I learned that most of the teachers in the public schools, with kids, had taught at the preschool while their kids were young. It was sort of the fast-track for getting back into teaching, for those who had stayed home for a few years with their kids. Perfect for me. The plan at that time was to teach part-time until Mr. C started kindergarten and then go back to full-time in elementary.

This job was amazing because the hours were so perfect for our family. Once again, the pay was not great. It allowed Mr. C to get out and socialize and gave me a little spending cash, that's about it. Like Amazing Job #1, the families and staff I worked with were wonderful. It was actually a bigger school than the one where I taught kindergarten, so it was a little more impersonal. Still, it was easy to form relationships. And those relationships are very important for landing teaching jobs, no matter what anyone says. It's usually about who you know. Remember the mom who wondered if Mr. C was going to preschool? She was the music and PE teacher there. She was also the mom of S's best friend.

I think things would have gone off without a hitch if we hadn't moved again. As it is, we moved to South Carolina when Mr. C was 4 1/2. It was the middle of the third year of my teaching with the preschool. If we had stayed I am confident that I would have gone back to teaching elementary school the following year. How can I be so sure? The summer after we moved to South Carolina I was called by the Personnel Director of the schools back in Tennessee. He wanted to talk to me about a job. I actually drove back and met with him and a principal. They offered me a 2nd grade classroom, but wanted me there in eleven days. It was a tough decision, but I turned it down. Hubby's job was in South Carolina and he made over twice what I would make as a teacher. No way for him to turn down his job so we could move back. So I passed on it, and our family stayed in South Carolina. Still, my heart aches when I think about living in Tennessee and that I held that chance in my hand and let it go. Tennessee was the happiest place we've lived. Home.