Nevertheless there will always be a minority who will not get the point you are trying to make.

There are others that think just like you. Good job.

This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring

That is sweet! I wish my wife would understand it.

I sure it doesn’t pay much but how about working at an employment agency – you’d have the inside scoop for all the jobs coming in!

My bot code is zene – maybe instead you should send your “debate” to The New Yorker, although SNL is probably the better venue.

mesue

Let me point out one other thing that make thankful for my job – working with teenagers. There are so many reasons I love working with them, in general. They make me feel youthful and wise at the same time, their lives are interesting and complex and yet extraordinarily simple. But perhaps the number one most important thing is: I have gained confidence about how I will be as a parent when my little ones are older. I was terrified before. Little kids are hard enough, but usually listening to intuition is enough to get you through. Working with teens in advance of my children being that age allows me to see the effects of parents on their children, both for good and bad. I am filing away little notes about the excellent parents I am fortunate enough to know and how they do it. I have come to understand in just 3.5 short years how important it is to set realistic goals for your children and not expect perfection. It allows me to love and enjoy my kids now more than before. Working with teens does not exhaust me and make me unable to have energy for my kids (though I am sure this would be the case if I worked with little ones.) Instead, it makes my days fulfilled, and my evenings with my kids better.

I would think as a single mom it would take so much stress away to know that Friday was fall break and I was off with them. When they are off for 2.5 weeks for Christmas, I won’t have to find people to watch them in my absence. Heck, I am not a single mom, but one with a spouse that works. Not sure how we could possibly handle any type of employment for me if I did not have days off with the kids. There is so much more to life than money, and I know you totally understand that. But this is real economics. My friends who work full time all year scramble for summer camps, send their kids to places where they don’t know a soul. Pay a fortune in summer tuition… and never get to take a day off “just because”.

Unless your fear of blood pressure and is gone, I am assuming you won’t be training for health care jobs. Besides… you need a job that touches your soul. Nursing could do that (again, if you don’t mind blood pressure!) So many of the other suggestions won’t. I get e-mails, voice mails, notes through snail mail from students in college, telling me what a difference I made. You would get even more.

I am sorry that pay for private schools is less in your area than public. I think you would be the perfect fit in a private school. A small public school could be similar where you are (not here!).

You can take m out of the drawing for Bear Bucks. Winning them would mean I would have to go somewhere near a mall, which to me is akin to your taking your blood pressure!

(BTW, I just got back from camping with the boys. I have poop stories I could add to your blog… You have not had many of those lately. Just imagine. Nearly 9 year old. Intestinal flu. In a tent. Came home minus a sleeping bag and several clothing items. Ugh.)

Bless you. You all rock, and give me hope of a new start. xo

I’m another high school teacher. I was going to suggest teaching, but that’s been covered. I second all the good things about it, though; it is rewarding and we aren’t broke and the pay raises are built in so you never have to ask for one. Plus, the state of SC paid for my student loans for my masters degree to teach. And if you add national board certification, in my state that’s an extra 7,000 a year.

Also, those people who work at the eye doctor? Who show you how to put in contacts and put drops in your eyes? Last time I was there the woman mentioned that it was only a few months of training but they start out making over 50,000. That job seems really easy.

I think that any of those kind of peripheral medical jobs would be pretty lucrative without too much time spent training.

Good luck!

I love all the thoughful ideas that people have come up with and I agree–work should provide joy as well as a paycheck!