I worked right up until the day before I was induced with DS, but I haven't worked since - and he's 16 now. I am going to have to return to the world of employment soon and I'm terrified!
Ex-DH and I agreed that I would be a SAHM until DS started primary school. But he left us shortly after DS started school, and also went to great lengths to protect his money. DS and I moved into a council house and I claimed Income Support, etc. He has never supported our DS.
I had no support system as my parents had both passed away, I wasn't close (either emotionally or geographically) to my siblings and had lost contact with my friends. I was having a lot of issues with DS and felt very isolated. I did attempt to start an OU course but they insisted tutorial meetings were mandatory, and my son suffered a lot with separation anxiety. I went to two tutorials and both times had to come home because he was vomiting and screaming for me. Ex-DH met a new partner who had never been able to have children, and they tried to obtain sole custody of DS, claiming I was unfit. After DS was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and Tourettes they lost interest in him altogether but the whole episode left me depressed and anxious for a long time. DS was always so demanding that I've been totally single ever since ex-DH left.
DS has had very patchy school attendance and there was never really a time where I felt 'OK I can look for a part-time job now.' I was always on standby ready to go up to the school at a moments notice. This year, his final school year, has been the best. Now we're organising what he will do after the summer and it looks like - crossed fingers - I may be finally ready to go back to work, at 38.
But I have no qualifications except for two A Levels. The jobs I had were in waitressing, customer service, shop assistant work. I loved travelling so I used to have jobs I could drop at a moments notice. It was just before I found I was pregnant that I decided to get serious about a career (I wanted to train to be a dermatologist).
I feel completely lost. There are things I would like to do, but I have no money for training and I'm afraid of the future debt involved in things like OU courses. I'm pretty sure I could get supermarket checkout work, but could we live on that income? I don't even care about pursuing a career I would enjoy, it's more about finding out what I could do, or learn to do, to give us a decent income to live on. DS may be financially dependent on me for decades!
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No qualifications, no experience - where do I start?
17 replies
SingingSilver · 28/05/2013 21:26
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