The Weight of Money

Following up on yesterday’s post, and Jonny’s comment, I wanted to add another perspective to our situation. I have to agree with the emotion behind yesterday’s comment, getting a job should be a very easy decision to make. Obviously, finances would be better and I clearly have the ability to do something about it. However, it isn’t that simple for our family.

While working would improve our financial situation, it will negatively impact our family life. We’ve learned that the emotional stability of our family suffers when I’m working. Also, tasks and obligations don’t always get met and we’re under a much heavier burden of stress. The daughter exhibits many more negative behaviors when I’m working, which is caused by the emotional stress I bring home. My partner prefers having the happier, more functional family and has not pressed me to get a job. In fact, every time I start mumbling about finally getting one, he gently reminds me that it isn’t necessarily the best solution for us.

It works out that while a job would relieve financial stress, it will create far more stress than the lack of money does. Now, it’s impossible to ignore that more cash would really help (especially when I run the numbers); however, just because it will help, doesn’t mean that it is necessary. Can we make do with what we have? Yes, though it’s not much fun and it hampers progress towards improved financial position. Luckily, money isn’t everything for us, though I may still find a way to make it work.

I’m still looking at positions and weighing options. There is a lot to factor in and I need to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel if I take a position. Working increases our monthly expenditures in terms of lunch, after school care, dinning out, transportation, and clothing. I need to know that a position will pay enough to manage those increases, cover enough bills or savings, and be manageable enough to reduce the emotional impact. So far, I’ve not been successful in balancing all of these things but I’m still willing to try to make some ends meet.

Also, my personal sewing business still draws in money. I’m working on more word of mouth advertising since I’ve moved to a whole new county. I have two meetings scheduled for next week that will hopefully bring in some extra business as well. It’s taking a little more work to find work here because it’s a much more rural area and there are more people who still sew for themselves here. However, there are murmurs of interest and I’m pretty patient.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 8:29 am and is filed under family, general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.