dad unmasked

As you can see, my daughter S is quite the aspiring fashion designer. Last week she found a $25 Target gift card she got for her birthday awhile back. She LOVES Target and begged me to take her shopping. Before we left, I told her just because she had $25, it didn’t mean that she needed to spend it all at once. I also told her to be smart with her money and not waste it  on junk. We spent about 20 minutes perusing the toy aisles. S was being very careful checking prices and deciding on what she wanted. Of course her little sister, N, wanted everything she saw, but that’s a whole other post. Anyway, S finally decides on the Harumika Designer Fashion Show and Go Set. I think it was a good choice. She loves drawing, reading and writing stories.  So now we can add fashion designing to the list. She must get the design sense from her pops, because he’s not a bad graphic designer himself.

Recently, I was placed on part time status at the ad agency I work for due to the economic slowdown. My part time status means part time pay. Yep, never in my entire life had I ever taken a 50% pay cut. It’s like someone taking an axe and chopping you right at the knees. I also compare it to being junk punched by the Man of Steel over and over again. It not only hurt my wallet, but it also hurt my pride. For the first day or two, I was filled with depression and anger. How was I going to pay the mortgage and put food on the table for my kids? I finally snapped out of it and decided to man up. I pulled my kids out of before and after school care which is saving lots of cash. I now drop them off in the morning and pick them up right after school. They are loving it. Plus, it gives me more time to spend with them.

There’s a phrase I’ve used in the past, “I’ve got the skills to pay the bills.” I’ve decided to starting using it again and living by it. I dusted off the old print portfolio, updated my resume and online portfolio and went to work contacting as many people within my network as possible. There have been a few promising emails and phone calls and I was able to hustle up a freelance gig. That cash will come in handy to not only pay bills, but it will also help when Santa and his elves pay a visit to shake me down. Hopefully I’ll be able to secure a full-time gig or more freelance very soon. But in the meantime, I guess I’m a part time SAHD and a part time SAHH (stay-at-home hustler.)

By the way, to all of you full time stay-at-home moms and dads out there, I commend you. I find it very challenging doing it part time let alone full time. Cheers!