I Answer Sherri's Questions

My friend Sherri, at Matter of Fact, posted some questions yesterday about how we feel about our job / career. (Click on the title to see her blog.) Truthfully, my career is on hiatus while I take care of mom, who can't walk. When she came home from the nursing home, her physical and mental health were suffering, but right now, she is thriving. She will probably never walk again, but we have come to a point where we can appreciate what she can do instead of worry over what she can't. I am going to apply Sherri's questions to the responsibilities I have with my mom right now, instead of the career that is three years behind me, and who knows if ever ahead of me again...




1. What is your job/career and your responsibilities at the moment?

My mom can't walk. I have to do things you could imagine being needed done for someone who can't get out of bed or out of their wheelchair by themselves, including by not limited to getting her in and out of bed with a hoyer lift.

2. What is the best part about your job?

My mom is doing so much better at home than she was in the Nursing Home she was in for rehab.... That is because she is happier at home...She had a stroke in the Nursing Home, I think because she believed she wasn't coming home. Once she came home, it took several months, but her overall health greatly improved, I think because her disposition did.

3. What is the worst part about your job?

I never liked being told what to do. Sometimes mom telling me it's late and I should go to bed brings out the rebellious teenager within me and I end up staying up all night. That sort of thing.

4. Have you ever been self-employed? If yes, would you do it again? Why or why not?

No

5. What was your first paying job?

McDonald's

6. What was your most fulfilling/rewarding job?

That's a difficult question. I loved teaching. I loved knowing I was affecting the future with every child I taught. But I do believe that what I am doing now is what God wants for / from me. And I do love my momma.
7. Ever had a job you detested?

No, not really. Every job I ever had had days and situations I'd have rather avoided at times, but I never hated a job.

8. What would be your dream job?

I always thought that if I won the lottery, and didn't have to make a living, I would open a coffee shop where all the literature around for the sharing (like good, old fashioned coffee shops whose names don't rhyme with tarchucks have...) would be Christian literature that I have personally read and found appealing (ie: The Case for Christ, Our Sunday Visitor, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, etc...)
9. Have you ever quit a good paying job because you were miserable?


No

10. Which job stretched you the most and why?

Teaching. Some naive folks think teachers have it good because they work from 9 until 3 and have all that time off...Nothing could be further from the truth. I used to get to school at 7:30 to set up for my lessons, and leave at 4 after tidying up. Then I got to plan lessons, grade papers, and use my own money to buy supplies...I often didn't even have time to make dinner because there was so much to do. All that time off people liked to remind me I was so lucky to have was spent either catching up with papers (Christmas and Easter) or cleaning a neglected house and trying to attend to a husband who had been neglected all year long (Summer). I didn't mind any of it except when I had to listen to strangers in a doctor's office tell me how lucky I was to be a teacher because I hardly had to work at all!

11. Who would you consider to be your best "boss" and why?

When I was in college, I worked in the library shelving books. So long as there were books to shelve, the manager let us choose our own hours, as few or as many as our school load could handle. Of course, if books were all shelved, we had to punch out and leave, but that is only right.

12. Ever had an extremely annoying co-worker? How did you handle them?

Yes. In her case, killing her with kindness worked.

13. Has there ever been a job you turned down that now you wish you would have taken?

No.

14. Is there any job you would refuse to do? Why?

Anything requiring me to show my assets. Because they are more like liabilities.

15. Would you love to retire RIGHT NOW or do you think you would miss working at your job.

No. I love taking care of mom. I am learning things, too. Taking care of mom has afforded me more time to learn things on the computer, and read. Yes, my "job" can still start at 7:30 a.m. and end at 11:00 p.m. , but I am not busy every minute and every hour in between. Besides that, the only way to retire from my job is to give up and send her to a Nursing Home (I hope I never have to do that) or for her to go home to Jesus (which I will NEVER be ready for..)


Bonus question: Do you think I'm getting too nosy with all these questions?
Absolutely not! Friends should be able to ask each other anything. And friends should also be able to say there are some things they'd rather not answer.