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Archive for May 20th, 2008

The school year is soon coming to an end. For many, it means vacation time, long lazy days of fun and play, and perhaps a few trips to the beach. For most of my neighbors it also means finding alternative, and hopefully affordable, daycare options that  may work for them while school is out.  Due to the high cost of living in this area, most of my neighbors are two income families, both of them working for some company in the Silicon Valley. During most of the year, a combination of school and a few hours of childcare works really well.  For the Summer, however, you can see them making all kinds of arrangements for back to back day camps, summer classes, sports and activities, etc., that are not precisely childcare, certainly not as expensive as a nanny or a daycare center, but that will have to double as daycare, just so they can continue to work, and save a few dollars. Sometimes, I feel a mix of guilt and sadness when I realize that I’ll soon be joining “the club”.  Sometimes, I feel a bit envious of my next door neighbor. She works as a teacher and has vacation time whenever her kids are on vacation. Her schedule also allows her to be home when the kids come back from school, so the only times she ever needs childcare is when her children are sick.  I don’t think I would like to teach elementary school, like she does, but if I was to become a teacher someday, perhaps I would teach Science and Technology… Or,   I could even teach SolidWorks! What? One can have dreams, right?

Other friends and neighbors, male and female alike, have managed to negotiate a flexible schedule that allows them to work from home one or two days a week, or at least every other week.  Even one of my husband’s Marketing guys has recently asked him to allow him to do just that. He doesn’t have small kids at home, but he commutes from another city, and the price of gas is burning his budget. I often wonder how easy it is to find that kind of flexibility in a CAD job.  I don’t think it should be that hard, but  who knows, I may be wrong. I’ve researched a bit about flexible jobs for mothers,  and found that what’s available often serves candidates in non-engineering areas. I’ve found sites like MomCorps, for instance, that matches candidates with companies offering part-time, contract or full time flexible jobs.  But when I did a quick search,  there was nothing available for an engineer in this area. So, how much flexibility is there for an engineer mother of small children? How much flexibility is there in a CAD job? I guess that’s what I’m going to find out real soon.