I started a new job this week - as library assistant at my children’s school. It’s the first regular work (apart from being a mother) I’ve done in seventeen years, so it’s quite an experience, but I’m loving it. I mean, I get to make displays, be with kids, work with books (there’s a library full of YA books at my disposal – it’s heaven), I get most of the school holidays and I get paid for it. What more could a girl ask?
I’m actually qualified as a teacher, and a few of the staff have hinted I’ll probably get roped into doing relief, but it’s not something I want to do any more. The library job doesn’t have the hassles of teaching. Yes, if kids are playing up in there, I have to put them straight, but it’s not a great responsibility, it’s a minor part of the job. I get there in the morning, finish at night and then just forget about it again until the next morning. Well, that’s the theory, but I do find myself racing around the house trying to find just the right item for this or that display. It’s not as stressful though, as worrying about whether little Johnny is being abused or whether little Jane is ever going to be able to understand place value or if I’m going to get the reports to the principal in time. I don’t miss that about teaching. I don’t miss having my buttons pressed all day, every time I do relief in a class. Or being phoned at 7am to have my plans for the day changed.
The other good thing about this job is that it’s only three days a week. So, here I am on Thursday morning with time to write or draw. The house is a mess, but I’m out in the office and can’t see the rest of the house! Of course I could have sent my daughter off to her first year of full-time schooling, come home and put my feet up for five days a week, but I knew I’d soon tire of that. It's pretty lonely out here on the farm sometimes. This way I’m a real person, a grown-up, working in a team of really nice people, being someone other than ‘Mum’ and able to think of buying things I’d like, without the slightest guilt about whether I really need them or not. Which reminds me, I meant to go and check out new guitars today…
I’m actually qualified as a teacher, and a few of the staff have hinted I’ll probably get roped into doing relief, but it’s not something I want to do any more. The library job doesn’t have the hassles of teaching. Yes, if kids are playing up in there, I have to put them straight, but it’s not a great responsibility, it’s a minor part of the job. I get there in the morning, finish at night and then just forget about it again until the next morning. Well, that’s the theory, but I do find myself racing around the house trying to find just the right item for this or that display. It’s not as stressful though, as worrying about whether little Johnny is being abused or whether little Jane is ever going to be able to understand place value or if I’m going to get the reports to the principal in time. I don’t miss that about teaching. I don’t miss having my buttons pressed all day, every time I do relief in a class. Or being phoned at 7am to have my plans for the day changed.
The other good thing about this job is that it’s only three days a week. So, here I am on Thursday morning with time to write or draw. The house is a mess, but I’m out in the office and can’t see the rest of the house! Of course I could have sent my daughter off to her first year of full-time schooling, come home and put my feet up for five days a week, but I knew I’d soon tire of that. It's pretty lonely out here on the farm sometimes. This way I’m a real person, a grown-up, working in a team of really nice people, being someone other than ‘Mum’ and able to think of buying things I’d like, without the slightest guilt about whether I really need them or not. Which reminds me, I meant to go and check out new guitars today…
2 comments:
Good luck, and keep enjoying it.
And don't succumb to pressure to do relief.
Congrats on the new job! I've always wanted to work in a library and have often thought about vollunteering at the local one, but I just don't have the time. It'll be great research too, seeing what all those potential readers out there are into. It sounds like you'll be having a lot of fun, and that's the best sort of 'work.'
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