Employment

How strange. I seem to have accidentally become employed.

Well, perhaps it wasn't a complete accident. But it has happened considerably sooner than I had expected. A few tiny pieces of paid writing aside, I haven't sold my labour directly for the ability to purchase the results of other people's labour since L's birth, more or less -- it has all been about being a stay-at-home dad and trying to write a book with whatever time was left over. Though my book is neither completely written nor sold, I am expecting that the former goal will be reached in the coming year and I am hope-hope-hope-hoping that the latter is achieved as well. I certainly haven't been harbouring feelings of inadequacy about depending on my partner's income -- like many many people socialized into masculinity, my sense of self and my work are too tightly intertwined to be strictly healthy, but unlike many of my compatriots, my ways of valuing that work have little to do with money -- but I have still thought it would be a good thing to return in a small way to paid employment as the book gets close to done. I had expected that would mean I would perhaps start keeping my eyes open for opportunities starting, say, next summer. But an opportunity came along that I couldn't say no to, and I took it.

I am far from anonymous on this blog, so I'm not going to blog about this job. However, I will say that it is few enough hours that I will still have plenty of opportunity to write and to parent, but those hours are better remunerated than you can usually expect to find for part-time work. The job will make use of skills and expertise that I have obtained in a few previous pieces of my life, but it will apply them in a combination and a context that are new to me, so it will also be an interesting challenge, particularly at first.

It still feels weird and sudden, however.