"never had a job"



Last night when my husband got home from a two day fishing trip with three neighborhood friends he mentioned that these friends asked if I have ever had a job. Then he told me that they all got a good laugh when he told them that I worked for three weeks making jewelry at a kiosk in the mall right after we got married. Somehow, and I'm not sure why, this makes me feel small. When I asked, "why didn't you stick up for me." He said, "I told them you were busy raising eight kids."

work I have done to earn money...

-babysit
-waited tables and prepared food at an ice cream parlor while in high school
-waited tables at a pizza parlor while in college
-above said bracelet maker right after marriage
-Jafra lady (paid for our first set of China with this money) living in California.
-Avon lady while living in Colorado.

work I have done that didn't bring in a dime...

-yard work growing up
-housework
-directed two plays in college
-raised eight amazing children (lots of time alone and sometimes extremely difficult)



-church work simultaneously with all of the above

So here's the thing. This list of paying vs. non-paying work make me feel so blessed to have been able to do work that really made a difference in my life as well as in the life of those I love.

While it is true that my parents didn't want me to work while in high school or college telling me that my work was to get good grades. It is also a fact that I went to college year round so that I graduated with a BA when I was twenty years old. I was married my last semester in college so I worked at the pizza place that paid for our wedding invitations as well as my husband's wedding ring.

I was twenty-one when our first baby was born and thirty-eight when the last baby blessed our lives. So, even though it's a bit of a joke (my husband gets a kick out of the social security statement that periodically comes in the mail and informs me just what a pitiful amount of money I have paid) I have not been "sitting on my hands." It's true... I have had the luxury of being a full-time mother while my husband worked hard and was out of town 2/3rd's of our married life.

Whew! Do I feel better having explained "no job?" Darned right I do.


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Comments

Kjersten said…
There is SO much value in all the of the work you do. How blessed you are (and how you have blessed others!) to have such a purposeful life.
cristie said…
Kjersten--thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. It is a fact that our lives are richly blessed in the sacred work of creating a home and mothering. xox

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