The Plan
Plans for the future are being laid. At the moment we are thinking of trying to go back to Ireland next May. In the meantime, Mickey has started learning how to be a truck driver. It's not an amazingly well paid job, but there are very few jobs in Ireland, and that seems to be one industry that usually has jobs going. Before that, I will go back to my job in March around the baby's first birthday. I will tell them I can only do short hours, and that will hopefully prompt them to fire me (if they haven't been planning that already) thus ending my obligation to pay them back my maternity pay. When we move back to Ireland, we will move in with Mickey's parents while we find our feet, find jobs and then get our own place. Yes, living with my mother-in-law! Imagine the amount of fodder for bitchy lj updates I will have come May (I love her, but she is interfering at the best of times, and living under her roof, using her kitchen to cook my disgusting vegetarian food, will be special - But it's brilliant that we have the option of going there, so I am not complaining... yet). Mickey will get a job as a hgv or artic driver and I will then look for a parttime job. I don't care in what industry, the hours being short is what's important to me at the current time (and I secretly wouldn't mind saying goodbye to lawfirms at this stage in my life, even though they are one of the best ways of making decent money with my scant skillset). We will reintegrate with the Irish punk scene insofar as that's possible with a small baby. Maybe even join/start a band again. Get involved with politics - the anti-water bills stuff etc. I'll see if there's any swing dancing I can get involved in. That's unlikely in the small city Mickey is from, Athlone, but there will be SOMETHING the get involved in, knitting or crafts or whatever. And of course, I'll meet other mammies.
There are some holes in this plan, like where are we going to live when the lease is up in the current flat. I also haven't thought properly about childcare for when I go back to work yet. To be honest, I feel a bit sick about the thought of leaving him for hours during the day with strangers, but hopefully I'll be a bit more ready for that when the time comes.
This is exciting. I want Séamus to grow up around his family. I also think the educational system open to people like us with no money is infinitely superior in Ireland than here. Everyone gets the same education in Ireland. There isn't a class system like here. Of course, there is the problem of religion being all but compulsory in Irish education, but I'll take it to get a decent education for my boy. It did me no harm. No much anyway (low level Catholic guilt, but I suppose that's traditional). I will miss London. I have so many great friends here - more than I ever had back home really. But now that I am hampered with getting a buggy onto the mostly non-accessible tube, I don't see them as much. It's a great town, and if I had loads of money, it could be a good place to bring up a kid. The diversity and stuff to do would be amazing for him. There are two insurmountable problems though. We can't afford the rent of a bigger place with a bedroom for Séimi, and even if we could, there is the eventual problem that only rich people can do third level education in this country. Not that he necessarily has to do third level education. But I would like him to have the option (and I morally object to only rich people getting to do it).
Anyway, enough of my class war. Exciting plans are afoot. Well, not yet afoot, but just over the horizon. I hope this actually happens.
Here's me and Séimi yesterday. His first tooth popped out yesterday, incidentally.
There are some holes in this plan, like where are we going to live when the lease is up in the current flat. I also haven't thought properly about childcare for when I go back to work yet. To be honest, I feel a bit sick about the thought of leaving him for hours during the day with strangers, but hopefully I'll be a bit more ready for that when the time comes.
This is exciting. I want Séamus to grow up around his family. I also think the educational system open to people like us with no money is infinitely superior in Ireland than here. Everyone gets the same education in Ireland. There isn't a class system like here. Of course, there is the problem of religion being all but compulsory in Irish education, but I'll take it to get a decent education for my boy. It did me no harm. No much anyway (low level Catholic guilt, but I suppose that's traditional). I will miss London. I have so many great friends here - more than I ever had back home really. But now that I am hampered with getting a buggy onto the mostly non-accessible tube, I don't see them as much. It's a great town, and if I had loads of money, it could be a good place to bring up a kid. The diversity and stuff to do would be amazing for him. There are two insurmountable problems though. We can't afford the rent of a bigger place with a bedroom for Séimi, and even if we could, there is the eventual problem that only rich people can do third level education in this country. Not that he necessarily has to do third level education. But I would like him to have the option (and I morally object to only rich people getting to do it).
Anyway, enough of my class war. Exciting plans are afoot. Well, not yet afoot, but just over the horizon. I hope this actually happens.
Here's me and Séimi yesterday. His first tooth popped out yesterday, incidentally.