My Precious Work

Most of my working life, I have held down three jobs at any given time. It’s often been a struggling and exhausting working life but it’s also been extremely well worth it, with the cost minimal when compared to the rewards.

My first job has always been my standard day job. Like most people, I turn up, do my work, and leave, all to be repeated the next day and the next etc etc. This position has mainly been in a numbers position, be it a Chief Financial Officer, a Finance Manager or a bookkeepers role, just to name a few.

Unfortunately this job was always a necessary evil, as it produced the dollars needed, to be at least moderately successful, in my other two positions. Don’t get me wrong, there are days that I enjoyed the work in this day job but if I had the choice, would I turn up every day just for the love of it? Not a chance! It’s strictly a money reward system that gets me there each day.

So you may very well ask, what are the other two work positions I hold?

They would be my most honoured of roles, that of Mother and Father. Let me explain that comment.

I gave birth to two beautiful boys, Ramon and Jye, and for most of their lives I have been a single mother. Hence the fact that my third, and one of my most glorious of roles, is that of Father.

These two roles would also explain why I needed my first job to bring in the money.

I believe I was born to be a mother and see it as, one of two, most important work roles that I have ever undertaken.

As my family consisted of three, my two boys and I, it became such a powerful dynamic that the three of us were forever inseparable and a very close knit entity. I was that fabled ‘Lioness with her Cubs’ as I am all they had.

My role as Mother and Father was a full time role for 20 years, in which it then because a part time role for a couple of years and then eased into a casual position.

All without physical remuneration in the form of money but hugely successful in the rewards such as love, friendship, laughter, pride, and family, just to name a few. Even our sorrow, tears, struggles and arguments, were all rewards as they helped teach some very valuable lessons.

My work as a full time Mother and Father, lasted for twenty years. From the birth of my first born, Ramon, up to and including the day my second born, Jye, turned 18 years of age.

Twenty years in a role that I was born for, that I loved with my entire heart and soul, and when I look back, I have neither regrets nor would I change one single minute of those years.

After those twenty years, it looked to me like I was being made redundant and I admit I was heartbroken and there were many silent tears. But then my boys would ask me for help or for advice and that’s when it hit home, I was still in the same working position but it had just changed to a part time position.

Although I was still in a full time role with Jye, the last two years of this full time role had seen me downgraded to a part time role with Ramon.

I converted fully to a part time role on Jye’s 18th birthday. At this stage I was part time in both boys lives. This double role lasted another five years, at which time I was made fully redundant from the part time role with Ramon. My position with him then became a casual position.

Whereas I was still part time with Jye for a further two years. He too, made me redundant at the end of those two years and I moved into a casual role with him too.

As sad as I was at each of these junction points, shedding many tears each time, I was also ecstatic that we made it to these points, knowing that I had done my job well. The measurement of how well I did as both Mother and Father showed itself when both boys easily downgraded my position. There were no struggles from the boys at each milestone because I had taught them the necessary tools they needed in life to successfully go from childhood to teenager to independent adults.

I’m so proud of the men they have become. They are polite, generous, empathetic and loving young men and I’ll happily take that reward as I merge into my partial retirement of Mother and Father.

Because of our close unity as a family group and our love and friendship for one another, I know my casual role as Mother and Father is secure for the rest of my life. I don’t believe I’ll ever be forced, by either young man, into full time permanent retirement and for that I’ll forever be extremely honoured.

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Originally posted on Medium