Are you a SAHM or do you go out to work?

[SSSandy]

If you're a SAHM overseas, do you enjoy that lifestyle or would you like to have a job? I've been a SAHM since dd was born in 2000.

ATM, I teach English to a banker on Fridays & am editing the next edition of Know-It-All Parents, which is a guide for English-speaking parents in French-speaking Switzerland.

I'd like to have more students. I make very little money but I would hate a 9-5 job, stuck in an office. Freedom is crucial! but then so is money & we're barely scraping by...

Those sound like nice jobs, sansouci. I wouldn't fancy working in an office in Germany. For one thing, I couldn't face always answering the phone with my surname (although I really SHOULD get the hang of this!). Find it difficult to imagine having a full-time position here really.

I'm considering applying to a couple of language schools to teach a bit of English in the mornings. It isn't worth it for the money though, I think you earn about the same as you would at McDonalds (after tax).

I´m a SAHM for the moment but think life would be much better if I worked.. Just waiting for DD to be old enough for the nursery school!

USis will it be easy for you to find something where you are?

I am also a SAHM and with a dh who works long hours and weekends (scientific research) I have often tried to find a job but always come to the school holiday/weekend problem. Now I would like to do some study but that is also hard, plenty on offer in Berlin but evening classes are out (average home time for dh is 9pm). I'm stuck. My parents just keep saying I'll just have to wait till the kids are old enough but by then I might have gone mad!
Thinking of distance learning but first there is the price and then the fact that I don't think I could make myself sit down and work at home if the washing/cooking/kids/mess was still looking at me!

Admylin, do you have a specific course in mind? Seem to remember there is an American university based in Berlin somewhere or at least there was.

No i don't have anything specific in mind but just thought if I'm forced to stay at home I could atleast get some better qualifications - a degree would be great atleast. I decided to let dh get through his biology studies and took over 100% at home but it is just getting out of hand with his ambitious career and I see no end or rather no escape! After diploma he did his phd now post doc (the second) and I know he is heading to be a lecturer and then professor as quickly as he can. Trouble is here I am with nothing to show for it.

Admylin, I think making progress with studying would be so much more satisfying than keeping on top of the housework. I'm no good at house-keeping TBH. Don't know if it would interest you at all but have you considered doing a degree in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL)? It would enable you to apply for work in the language labs of universities dh is working at, that's if he is going to be spending several years working in different countries.

I think you can do those courses largely per correspondence with a couple of resident courses of about 2-3 weeks duration.

It's hard to know, isn't it? But when the kids are bigger, if you do want to or have to go back to work, it would be nice to move into reasonably paid work with some kind of status attached to it.

Sorry sorry I take that back! Who am I to be telling anyone what to do with their life?! Have to sort my own out first. Please just ignore that ramble admylin

sahm - did it for a year when we lived in the UK and just had dd1 then went to work for a year. Then we moved to Aus and had dd2 who is now 18 months old... every now and then I wonder BUT my dd1 has so much on her plate it would be a nanny - and to me - why pay someone else to care for the girls and I would miss out on sooo mcuh.

We are very comfortable - a little stretched but are able to do fine without me working.

I intend to start studying for my masters probably next year to do a multi displinary masters which would encompass field of writing and publishing and early childhood special needs education..... then possibly swap from high school history/english teaching to early childhood SN or finally write my book!!

well a little stretched at times but doing okay. I do enjoy being able to get out and about with dd1 or dd2 and meet up with kindy mums or my friends and have coffee or take the girls to the park or swimming or things like that.

Hi Sandy, no it won´t be easy for me to find work as I don´t speak the language very well..

Admylin, why not do an evening course once a week, get a flavour of something new and get yourself out of the house at the same time.. Then think of your options!

Evening courses are out for me as dh can't reliably say when he will be home, he is in research and if an experiment is going well he has to stay and finish, the only time he gets home early is if the work didn't go well and he has to start over again the next day. (Something to do with measuring the electric impuls in the brain when a migraine comes on and trying to figure out if strokes and migraines are connected)
I have thought of tefl but up to now have not found any good offers online - don't worry SSSandy, your advice is nothing new I know it myself, when the kids are older I am going to be in a real fix as to what to do. I have to sort my life out too, we're a fine pair! Giving advice "gegenzeitig" is never a bad thing!

Has anybody tried giving small children English classes just nursery rhymes, numbers, names of toys etc...? I did this briefly years ago, had a good coursebook, the children really enjoyed it. This could be an option for you Admylin as your own children could attend for fun and as role models. Parents are also v happy to pay for their little ones to learn English!

I do this Uglysister. What coursebook do you use?

Forgotten the name of it now, it was, oh.. more than 5 years ago!