Mom's Clubs and a Loss of Income

I just wanted to take a minute here to express my enthusiasm for my Mom's Clubs. I am in 3 different Mom's Clubs, all of which are organized on Meetup.com. Oh what a glorious site! Meetup.com is wonderful! I would recommend that any mom, especially stay at home moms, check out Meetup.com for groups in your area.

As I said, I'm in 3 clubs: one for pre-school age children (0-5) and two specifically for babies born in 2009. The two groups for 2009 babies are really nice because Mira can hang out with kids who are her age, and therefore at her level, developmentally. And it's nice for me to be able to talk with moms who are going through the same things I am going through at the same time. The other group, the one for kids aged 0-5, is good because observing the older children gives me ideas for the future and prepares me for what's to come.

I've met some truly wonderful women in these clubs and Mira has made some great little friends. And between the 3 clubs, I have something free or very inexpensive to do nearly every day of the week.

I'm sure most of you have heard that Brian lost his job. That's something that is very scary for anyone, but especially so for a couple where one parent is at home with the kid(s). There is suddenly no income at all for the entire household. That's a stressful position to be thrown into. Brian and I decided that our primary goal was to find a way to keep me at home. We didn't feel that Mira or I was ready for Mira to be put into daycare and also we wanted to be able to continue our current attempts at expanding our family (we've been trying for another baby since November).

So with our family-oriented goals in mind, I decided that I would do everything I could to support Brian in his job search, but that I would not begin the process of finding a daycare for Mira and a job for myself until it became obviously necessary. Instead I chose to trust that Brian would find a way to take care of us. He's got loads of experience and a diverse set of skills and a great personality, so I'm sure that there are tons of companies out there who would find him to be a valuable employee. And I have every expectation that he will be our hero in the end because I see how he fights for us every day by putting himself out there and being aggressive in his job hunt. He'll find that dragon and slay it, and he'll be my knight in shining armor, the way he always does.

But...

Just because he is so incredible and capable all on his own, doesn't mean that I can't give him a little boost from behind the scenes. ;-D

So I asked my fellow moms in the Mom's Clubs if any of their husbands worked in IT. And lo and behold... The mommy network got Brian some rather impressive leads! When I asked Brian if these were connections he wanted to follow up on, he said, "Absolutely because I know that those men make enough to support a stay at home mom!" I thought, "Oh yeah, good point." Anyway, one company has shown a good amount of interest in Brian, and he's got a third phone interview with them tomorrow. (Yes, I did say a third phone interview. My mommy friend warned me that they have a looong interviewing process; boy, she wasn't kidding.)

Ok so, moral of the story: Mommy Network For the Win. Every mommy should have one!

Oh and apparently, there's a referral bonus at this company and, if Brian gets hired, my mommy friend is lobbying for the bonus to go toward mommy pedicures or something since it was totally our connection that earned the referral. So double win. ;-)