What does an unemployed mom do all day?

I never really wondered what it would be like being a stay at home mom.  I knew I had to work, so why spend a lot of time on a lifestyle that couldn’t be.  Besides, as my family grew, I realized that my working was the best thing for my family in many ways.  Even my kids would say that they didn’t want me to quit my job and stay home.  

Now that I’ve been home for a couple of months, I cannot believe how the time flies.  I don’t have a full time job, so how is it that I’m still rushing around and fishing clean clothes out of a laundry basket?  Well, here’s a list of the top 10 things that you might find yourself doing if you were unemployed:

10.  Paperwork, calls, forms, etc.  When you are laid off from your job, you have contracts to sign, insurance to sign up for, and other related paperwork that has to be sorted out.  I spent a good part of the first few weeks just trying to understand what my options were and what I needed to do and when I needed to do it.

9.  Exercising.  Ok, so I should be doing this, but I haven’t exactly gotten into the habit.  But, this is something that I now have the time to do.  I’ve had some set backs due to health issues, but exercising is definitely something that you should devote time to, especially if you have been laid off.  Good for the mind as well as the body.

8. Volunteering at School.   I finally was able to sign up for those end of year activities that I could never do when I was working.  Truth be told, I wasn’t too sad that I had my job as an excuse not to have to serve up pizza at the field day or whatever – always happy to send in my cash donation.  But, it felt good to be able to do my part, and my daughters – especially the youngest, really loved it.

7.  Doctors’ appointments.  With no meetings to cancel and work commutes, I can make doctors and dentist appointments for anytime – especially since the kids are out of school.  Since my last day of work, I’ve had 8 doctors appointments for me and/or the kids.

 

 

 

6.  Cleaning the Pool.  If you don’t have a pool, this might be “yard work”.  Of course the time of year dictates this one, as well as some of the others on my list, but if I didn’t have the pool to obsess over, I have a list of other outdoor/yard items which I would have been obsessing.  We opened the pool in May, and I spent the month of June cleaning out all the pine needles and pollen, and leaf buds.  I obsessed over vacuuming (I haven’t vacuumed my home as much as I’ve vacuumed that pool), and chlorine, and other chemicals.  In hindsight, the pool may have been some sort of metaphor for getting over the loss of employment.  Or I just liked it.  It got me outside. I could see results.

5.  Looking for a Job.  Ha, I bet you wondered when this was going to make the list.  Yes, I am looking for a job, and I have been since day 1.  I had a goal from the beginning to spend at least 1 hour every day doing something towards my job search – looking at listings, tweaking my resume, applying for jobs, etc.  My company has provided outplacement services, so I have been going to the webinars that they offer – they have taught me that I need to be spending 30-40 hours a week on a job search.  That isn’t happening because I’m still . . .

4.  Cooking, cleaning, laundry, and chauffeur.  Just because I’m unemployed doesn’t mean that my family stopped making messes or needing food.  I feel like I am at the grocery store 3x more a week than I was when I was working.  And, because I’m around, I can drive my kids to their friends, or pick up their friends.  It’s not so much time as it’s an interruption in the day that makes it difficult to focus on my job search or other projects.

 

3.  Cleaning out my closets, cabinets, cellar, etc.  The first week I was home, I made a list of all the projects that I haven’t had time for when working.  It’s 20+ items long.  Due to installing a ceiling fan, I had to clean out my clothes closet – this put me into major purge mode. The closet lead to the bureau in the family room, my other bureaus in my bedroom, well, you get the point.  I ended up with 16+ bags of clothing to donate.  There’s another donation pick up at the end of the month, so I’m going to do another major purge.

2.  Eating out and meeting up with colleagues.  I am going to weigh 300 pounds when this is all done.  Everyone who is still working wants to meet up for lunch or dinner (sometimes breakfast).  And now I can meet up with friends that I couldn’t before when I was working.   It’s part of the networking that you need to do to find a job.

 

1. And the number one thing I’ve done with my time off:  Go on Vacation!  Ok, so we had this vacation planned before I became unemployed, and I would have lost money to pull out, so we didn’t even contemplate canceling it.  If you have the means to go on a vacation during your unemployment, I really recommend it.  It’s probably the only time in your life since you had summers off from school that you’ll actually take a vacation from nothing!  It’s such a relaxing, enjoyable time.  Oh, I know it may not feel that way if you are stressing about money or finding a job, and in those cases, I would not recommend it.  However, most of us plan to take some sort of time off – so just remember this is something that you would have done anyway.