working girls

so i have had a ton of stories lately but have been super busy. one of the reasons is that, after the layoff last spring, i've since become gainfully employed once again. (golf claps all around)

the best part is, so has my mother (kind of). a little work history on dear mom:
she never finished college but the girl had drive.
she worked at "the phone company" for many years and ended up retiring from there and taking a new job in the field of security. she is a saleslady through and through. if she gets to talk and persuade, she's in. so it was perfect.

she made her way up and up the chain and was making well over six figures at one point (i know this, because she told me fairly often). then she married her boss and, not surprisingly, the company wasn't so cool with that idea, so she left (some would say she was pushed out. -eh-).

this was years ago and, since then, she's been struggling to find her way back. in our family, jobs often determine self worth so not having one is difficult (i can attest to this, given my situation last year).

but this year, she finally landed her dream job: working for Weight Watchers. as has been previously noted, my mother lost 90 lbs using Weight Watchers and has since become a champion of their ideals and practices. so it only made sense that she would want this job.

however, given that she was 'off the market' so long, she has slightly forgotten how annoying/frustrating/intense a job can be. now, it's important to note that this job is fairly flexible and she can work or doesn't have to: you get what you give in this role. but what you absolutely don't get at this level is six figures. that's been a hard one for her, if only because her husband keeps bringing it up. but i like to remind her that whatever she's making now, she wasn't making this time a year ago in hopes of helping her feel more secure (back to that self worth issue).

so we have recently bonded over getting back into worklife. we chat about how we used to get all of our chores and errands done during the day and now they have to wait until the weekends. she tells me about how she made $5 selling Weight Watcher snacks and i tell her about the craziness at my office.  she tells me about how she needs to find subs for her classes so she can go on crazy vacations, i tell her how i don't have any vacation time accrued yet so i'm not going anywhere any time soon.

she seems slightly obsessed with telling everyone that she's not totally tied to this gig, but i can tell she loves having it. it really is the job she's been dreaming of (and she's lucky enough to not actually *need* it, save for sanity reasons).  she's recently told me that they've been working her to the bone, giving her more classes than ever to teach and though she says it with the voice of someone who's been overworked for the last 50 years, i can hear the twinkle of glee in her voice that she's now back in the saddle. 

hearing your mother regain her self confidence (first step was the aforementioned 90 lb weightloss) holds something wonderful and true. i imagine it's probably like watching your kid go through the same thing (and since boundaries are often blurred in our family, it makes sense). despite her sometimes strange expectations for such a job, it has been nice to have her there to share stories with as we both jump back in to the 9 to 5.