Mel’s Mundane Meanderings

Well, after taking my kids to work with me for a few weeks now, I can say that this perfect-sounding solution to my problems is not so perfect. Taking kids to work with you is hard!

For example, today my boss left me to tend the store by myself for 5 hours. It is extremely hard to run a store by yourself, especially when you have your kids with you. Mikaela had a bad diaper and I had to tell her to wait a minute until I finished ringing someone up. That’s when I said to myself “this is NOT going to work.”

Today was the first day I’ve been alone that long, but apparently my manager plans to do that every day, since she has to drive to another city to pick one daughter up from her pre-K program at 11 – and she has to stay there to pick her other daughter up after 3. I don’t know what this woman was thinking, opening her own small business (the store opened in mid July) and then planning to be gone half of each day. I am raring to quit, and I’m only waiting for her to hire a new person.

I don’t think it’ll be a problem financially, anyway – my other job (freelance editing/writing) is gearing up for a busy fall and winter season.

In other news, we are about a month away from moving now. We have some stuff in the works, but more on that when we find out for sure.

This is the third job in a row that I’ve worked at where I’ve wound up butting heads with my boss. The first two instances I felt my boss was taking advantage of me (i.e. – one was wanting me to work through my lunch and another was working me 18-hour days) (among other things), but this one is just turning out to be a jerk.

Earlier in the week I had agreed to come in yesterday (Thursday) to cover for the other two girls who were busy, and the store’s owner, who had a meeting with her realtor about the house she is buying. I agreed to come in, but when both of my kids wound up getting sick at their stomachs, I called her early yesterday morning and asked if one of the other girls couldn’t come in because my kids were sick. She got a snotty tone with me and told me I needed to “put my best foot forward” and come in.

I had to call Jay to come home from work and watch the kids so I could go in. His boss was furious, because they were short-handed. When I got to work and told my boss that, she said that he needed to “get over it” and “be like a tree and bend.” She asked how often he had to take off from work because the kids were sick.

I don’t know about you, but I think a normal person would have appreciated the fact that my husband left his professional job, despite being chewed out for it, to come home so I could cover for her at HER STORE so she could go to her meeting.

I further told her that Jay said that this kind of thing couldn’t happen again and he just wanted me to work evenings and weekends there from now on. Her response was, “oh, he’s just mad, he’ll get over it.”

Then she started guilt-tripping me about training me and now she was going to have to get someone else (to work the hours she needs) and train them all over again. I can honestly say that she’s put about 15 or 20 minutes of training into me … it’s not rocket science.

I have a personality that wants to please everyone … I hate disappointing people, so this is a struggle. But at the end of the day, I have to put my family’s needs first.

I’m keeping busy with two jobs and two kids. I know, my jobs are only part-time, but add that onto being a mom and it’s plenty.

Things at the consigment store are nuts. There are only 4 of us who work there, and 3 of us are part-time. We are drowning in inventory. People keep bringing us huge storage bins filled with clothes, which is a good thing except for the sheer volume of it all. Our back room looks like a laundry hamper threw up all over it. The problem is sorting through the clothes and weeding out everything that’s worn, has spots or small holes, etc. Then we have to button buttons, snap snaps, etc. and hang everything on hangers, enter it into the computer and tag it. Before we put it out on the floor it all has to be separated by gender, size and color. When you multiply those steps by thousands of items of clothing, it takes time. And time is running out, because tax-free weekend is this weekend (for the people shopping for back-to-school clothes), and we need to have everything out on the floor by then. I could get a lot more accomplished in a day if it weren’t for the darn customers bugging me.

Another thing that’s slowing us up is having to sort through our toys and make sure none of them were included in the various recent toy recalls.

Yesterday was quite a day. An entire wall of shelving and clothing racks came crashing down suddenly and without warning. The stuff fell on the floor right where a baby had been sitting just minutes earlier. There were no customers in the store at the time, thank goodness.

I still like the job, mostly. I can’t see it being something long-term, though, especially in light of the fact that we might be moving soon. But that’s another story entirely.

I’ve been working at my job for a week now, and I love it. We’re working out kinks in my schedule, but I’m basically going to be working weekedays from 2:30 through 7:30 or so, and Saturdays from noon until whenever. That gives me mornings and early afternoons with the kids, and I can still be home in time to see them before they go to bed. I’m not going to get rich at this job, but it’s enjoyable and it’ll be enough to make ends meet. I hope.

So, we may get a second car this weekend. We would have had one earlier in the week, but the credit union we bank with didn’t want to pay the amount that Carmax wanted for the car, so we would have had to pony up over $2,000 to get the car. No thanks.

We’re also possibly going to look at a house this weekend. I’m excited.

Back to the job – I think one of the reasons I love it so much is that I get to see cute babies all day. What fun. I was baby-talking to a 6-month-old boy today and he gave me a wide, toothless grin. No regular desk job has perks like that!

My boss is the coolest person ever for letting me and my co-worker bring our kids to work at the consignment shop we work at. The shop has a really great playroom full of toys and a TV so they can watch Sesame Street, etc.

Between my kids, my boss’s kids, my co-worker’s kid and the kid of the shop-owner next door, it gets noisy in there, though. And it always seems like someone’s got a dirty diaper. But it’s an interesting little experiment. My kids love getting a chance to socialize with other kids close to their ages, and they really love an opportunity to play with a bunch of new toys. Thankfully, the shop’s small enough that I can keep a good eye on them. Another plus is that there’s a window into the playroom, so we can peek at them from the cash register or from out on the sales floor.

So, Monday I worked about 5 hours with the kids in tow, and today I worked about 7. Monday was difficult, but today went a lot more smoothly, partly because the kids settled down for a long nap in the stock room while I worked right next to them, sorting clothes.

I think a part-time schedule would work best, though … I know they’re having fun, but I want some good one-on-one time with them at home too. If my boss keeps my current schedule the same, I’ll be working Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays. Obviously on Saturdays, Jay can keep the kids for me while I work.

I must say … I am pretty exhausted. The consignment shop I’m working at is pretty new and we have a massive backlog of inventory to sort through, inventory, tag and put out on the floor. I’ve tagged so many items the last two days, my fingers are blistered.

I’ll write more soon … I need to get some rest.

Well, Monday I start at a local consignment shop on a part-time basis. The owner has her kids there, and I’m going to bring mine as well. I figure the kids can socialize for a few hours while I make some $$ …

We’ll see how it works out. Should be interesting!

I guess another perk of working at a consignment shop will be getting dibs on the good toys and clothes when they come in. Hopefully I’ll still have a paycheck after that!

I’m still going to be freelancing as well, but I’m hoping this new part-time position will have a more reliable, steady income. It’s hard to budget when you don’t know whether you’re going to be working 5 or 55 hours in a given pay period.

We have decided it’s time to get another car to replace ours that broke down. The new job is a partial reason, as is Gabriel’s speech therapy through the local school district, which will be starting up again soon. It’s going to be so nice to have a car available during the weekdays again!

I’m still committed to homeschooling, but I can definitely see that between my 2 p/t jobs and that I’m going to have to be really wise with my time-management.