Starting my first job in years tomorrow, help!

[JaceyBee]

So here I go. 5 years at university and 2 kids later I am finally starting a job I think I will be happy in. Bit nervous and all that but I've met a few of my colleagues already and they all seem really nice. 20 hours per week and a 10 minute walk from my house, couldn't be any better really. However, I have had my nan on the phone bending my ear for hours about how depressed she is that my kids (18m and 4) will be 'missing mummy' all day and about how they 'won't understand' and basically how I'm ruining their childhoods by going back to work. Now, she is 95, so obviously I'm trying to cut her a bit of slack, but it's putting a bit of a downer on things really and I am feeling all conflicted about it now. I was wondering if anyone elses relatives had opinions like this and how you deal with them without resorting to 'f-off and mind your own business'. I don't know, maybe I'm just looking for reassurance that I'm not doing anything detrimental, my mum stayed home until we were much older but then they could afford it and it was a different time then. Think my nan reckons I'm being selfish but we need the money and to be honest I've worked bloody hard for my degree while having my kids and don't want it to have been for nothing. Sorry for the rant, I guess I am just getting my first taste of what it's like to be a working mum, right?

[geminigirl]

Woo Hoo to you!! Big cheers for taking the bull by the horns! God, don't worry about the guilt trip...just agree and say that 'Yes I know..(big sigh and pause for effect) and I wish I could afford to stay at home with them but unless someone wants to give us a big ball of money...' I find that talking about money or a lack thereof usually stops people lecturing about working mums.

Hope you have a great day, it will be so liberating! GOOD LUCK

[brimfull]

Go don't feel guilty.
Your children will be fine and enriched by having a satisfied mum.
It's your life and you need to do everything to make it happy for YOU and your family.