Back to Work after Parental Leave: Looking Forward to New Beginning
In one of my previous posts, I was sharing how privileged I felt to be able to afford to be on Parental Leave for as long as it is necessary. As parents here without extended family or support, we found that best solution is to use Parental Leave instead of fast returning to work - to pay than strangers to raise our kids. For us it was more profitable and beneficial to do so, each situation is different and what worked for us might not work for everyone.
Now all kids attend school and kindergarten and I have sufficient time during the day to work.
On our side, this season was like last season: a lot of seasonal sicknesses - boys are fine now but we all had so far our fair share of the virus cocktails traveling around. We all had stomach flu during October, then I had the flu followed by a mild and quite reasonable weekend cold as a b-day present. But all in all, this winter was better for us - we could attend all the X-mass events, karate contests with kids where they got their red belt, the school in nature event for club members at Lipka, lighting of Christmass tree in our village and in next village and boys even had a wonderful theatre performance, we also made tree decorations.
We baked pernicky and planned the meals for Christmass day and next is to prepare the plan and visit our church here in Brno - we hope boys will be fine by Sunday and Monday 25.12.
That was in short our latest activities, next is about the end of my Parental Leave.
All things that have a beginning also have an end and from January I will be returning back to work. I was unable to dedicate much time to blogging here because I am doing a lot of training lately and a little freelance to help us keep the boat afloat until I start work.
About my freelance aspirations, will try to make a different post and maybe even share tips here. I also write on another platform regularly, on blockchain-related topics and that pretty much used all my attention left during 2023. That and some training to get me back in shape for the incoming work, to refresh. Thanks to my writing there, I could finally see a small income from writing - is not about the amount is just a celebration of progress. After 8 years of writing on and off, more or less regularly - 2023 is the year when I got my first pay from writing, and is a good feeling. I will write here about the other platform when time allows.
What I expect upon my return to work starting January 2024?
To be honest, I truly expect work. Some work to get me going and start being productive again. I need that a lot, after so many years of just home, kids, play and repeat. During 2023 my freelance and training helped me a lot to get out of the numbness.
I also expect a drop in my fitness level - as I will not be able to exercise regularly as I did before. This, truly I hope will not happen. But, I do remember when I was working before having kids, not much energy was left at the end of the day for sports or relaxation.
I expect to make new friends and reconnect with old friends from work, really need that and miss the social interactions from work.
I expect our expenses to increase a little more, as I will commute and not be able to cook as much as before, or plan and tailor specific, more affordable menus. Being able to administer our finances and live with what we really need, no unnecessary expenses is what allowed me to be on PL longer. Now, we will have the extra income, but the reality is it will be easily spent without notice because of lack of resources to administer the household as I did during PL.
For example - we used to bake at home gluten-free waffles for 5X less money than store bought ones. That will not happen after I start work, I imagine.
I will also spend more on clothing and shoes - during last years I did not need as much, was using the same and no problem with that. But when works starts, I have to look normal :))
All in all, I am really looking forward to be active again and hope for new friends and development opportunities.
I will be returning to post here in hopes that at least some of my messages find their way to you and maybe help, even a little.
Take care and enjoy lovely December days!
Comments
Post a Comment