Please tell me I'm not nuts

15 years ago, it was 1993 and I was graduating from high school and starting university. At that time, my vision for the future entailed me working at some plum job and living the high life. There were the requisite 2.0 kids in my vision too, but they didn't factor in in a major way. I figured there were babysitters and daycare centres to take care of them, you know? I would be responsible for spitting them out but after that, it was back to being All About Me.

It's funny how perspective changes with time, because then I had Liam and things changed in an instant. Suddenly I would do whatever it took to limit my use of babysitters and daycare centres to an absolute minimum, and I found that I would rather have an OK job that didn't take me away from home too much than a plum job that demanded all of my time. I decided that I would spend my early years of parenthood devoted to home first and work second, and I also thought I would stay in the job I held for some time to come - not wanting to stir the pot too much by taking on anything new.

And then, with just a couple of months left before this maternity leave ran out, a job was posted back at the office that essentially was looking for someone who had spent the past 11 years doing exactly what I have done. It was wanting that person to use those skills to go on and do something that I had once, a couple of years ago, described as my ideal next job in a very cherry-picking way - take part of this person's role, part of that person's role, modify the business a little bit this way and voila - that's what I'd like to do.

So I applied for it. And I interviewed for it. And last week I got it. And I accepted it. And I start it on Monday.

And while my family still comes first and my job comes second, I'm excited. I sort of think this IS a plum job. There will be a huge learning curve, I'm sure, and I will do what I can to manage that - but only during working hours and naptimes and at night. In my interview I made it clear that travel, on-call hours etc. were not going to work for me at this stage in my life, and I was relieved that the hiring manager was fine with that, saying he didn't expect those things to be requirements of the role. If they should one day become requirements? Well, he knows where I stand on the issue.

So here I go again, back-pedalling on something I swore I wouldn't do. But the opportunity is something I can't pass up, and I really do think our family will be better for it. Wish me luck.

(These pictures are all from a foray into homemade playdough - something we did a couple of weeks ago that is currently a big hit. Take 4 cups of flour, 4 cups of water, 4 tbsp vegetable oil, half a cup of cream of tartar and one cup of salt. Dump it into a pot and cook it. It will look like slop and you'll think there's no way it will turn into playdough, but it does. Cook until it turns into a big ball, let it cool a bit and then knead in some food colouring. Keeps for up to 6 months, I'm told. You can even add a packet of Kool Aid to make it smell nice and fruity, but Mallory really doesn't need any more encouragement in the eating non-food items department, you know?)