Ultimate Blog Challenge - What has been your favorite job so far?

Welcome to Day 5 of this Ultimate Blog Challenge, today's question is 

What has been your favorite job so far?

Why is it that my mind first goes to the paid jobs I had in my life, when being a Mom is for sure the greatest thing I've been doing?

Probably because it's not a "job" as in: you have a contract, a job description, regular working hours and a pay check? Also you are not leaving the house for x amount of hours to do stuff, and as you get home you're done. 

Instead your boss is your ever so demanding mini-you that will give you instant performance reviews at any given time ;-)

I tried to teach my toddler son about working hours, overtime and rest periods.

"I'm off" I told him. "Sleep now!" 

He shrugged and hugged me. Here was my compensation. I guess? 

Kidding aside. 

While being my son's Mom is for sure the best thing, I don't particularly like the housewife part that comes with it, and that society and male husbands expect you to do, no matter how many days a week you also do a "real job" in the corporate world. 

Sometimes I would fantasize about being able to charge for my duties: two loads of laundry, one including changing the bedsheets following an incident containing bodily fluids, three meals, one grocery run, one trip to the recycling center, making - and being present for - a handyman's appointment, purging summer clothes, taking them to charity, and so forth. 

However, I immensely appreciated having the time and opportunity to go out and about with him when he was little. 

The other day this adorable picture showed up in my Facebook memories. Colin was almost two years old and enjoyed playing with his cars. A few weeks later a friend would give him his first Disney car, and from then on, he was hooked. 

On the same day I read a post of a young Mom who said she had a two year old and was pregnant with the second child, and for the first time ever, her husband had to travel for business for an entire work week, and she was desperate. She claimed she had always been a bit dependent and she had no idea how to manage to do it all alone. 

I was stunned, since I am the complete opposite. At times I may be a bit too independent, forgetting to even include my husband. Since his business partner passed away in 2011, he has been working six days a week, and in the beginning these days were long, so factually I acted as a single Mom minus the weekends off you get when you're divorced. 

While it was hard a times, I focused on enjoying spending time with my little one, and I considered it a privilege to work part-time, which gave me the opportunity to buckle him up in the car and go somewhere every so often. 

Now what is going on with this pumpkin lady, and what does she have to do with this post?

She pretty much stands for my life, and the life of any (working) Mom. She's Ms Mental Load, and she is part of this year's pumpkin exhibition in one of my favorite farms. Every year in September the pumpkins get masterfully arranged to depict a certain theme, and this year's topic is women power. There's Greta Thunberg and Pippi Longstockings, the two having in common that they're from Sweden and don't enjoy going to school ;-) 

I envy Ms Mental Load for having six arms. God knows one would be able to get way more sh** done!

While it's true that "Day Jobs" come with a lot of responsibilities and deadlines, a Mom's mental loads are different. Your immediate family is concerned. if you don't take time off work, make sure in time that he has new hiking boots that have been impregnated, he will have to participate in the school field trip in worn out sneakers and will get wet feet, or worse, sprain his ankle. If he gets sick or injured, you have to take time off work and take care of him at home. Meaning your own negligence has consequences on him and yourself. 

Why would you have to take time off work to get hiking boots, you ask? Because opening hours in Switzerland, that's why. 

I digressed.

So, bottom line, even though a working Mom's load can be huge, I will still say, my favorite job so far has been the one I've been having for the past 15 years.

How about you? What has been your favorite job so far?