Christmas Countdown 2023….Day 13
During the same few years that Russ and I were renting a small house, figuring out how to be parents and realizing that child care beyond our own child was not in the cards for me, I found another way to bring in income. Of course I did.
How I managed to find the job escapes me, but I found myself once again working in retail. This time it was at So Fro Fabrics at our local mall. I was able to work the 5-9 shift a few nights a week and longer shifts on weekends.
Since Russ had indeed proved he was able to care for our girl, I was glad for some time to work a job I loved. My mom taught me to sew and between the bolts of fabrics, patterns, notions and the added bonus of working at a mall, I was in my element. Except I failed to factor in one thing.
The mall was a good twenty minutes from our house not counting parking and getting myself into work. Russ got off at 4:30, but he had not mastered the art of time travel either. So we had to find someone to …. Gulp….watch Rachel for the thirty minute lag between our two jobs.
Suddenly I found myself seeking a sitter. Some neighbors recommended a lady a few blocks from us who watched children. I visited her home and it was very clean. She only had one or two children plus her own little ones by that time of the afternoon and it would be for a very short stay for Rachel.
We had no other options. I took Rachel to her house at the last possible minute before I needed to head north. On the evenings I worked, Russ scooted to his car and picked her up as quickly as he could. It was the best possible scenario and yet it was still difficult for me to do. I worried about her when she wasn’t with one of us, and it reinforced to me that I would not make a good employee if I tried to work full time.
The job at So Fro was fun and it was good for me mentally to have something to do outside the home. Obviously, I battled a lot of fears in my mothering. We didn’t have any little ones in our family or close friends growing up. My babysitting as a teen was extremely limited…another chapter of this saga. So I knew it was good for me to have to be away and Ialso knew it was a great experience for Russ to care for her by himself.
He was a champ at entertainment, changing diapers, giving baths, reading and hugging. However, he lacked one thing that was necessary for her survival. I was a nursing mom and the child never had a drop of formula. She actually wouldn’t really take a bottle of breast milk very well either.
So, on my longer weekend shifts my dear husband, on any Saturday or Sunday would load our sweet girl up in the car and drive her to the mall. He would window shop on my break while I took her to the mommy’s room at the department store to feed her. I still get tears thinking of how he supported me in this. He knew it mattered to me and so it mattered to him.
Wow. We were so young. We had not a clue at times what we were doing, but we learned together. Now when the weather is cold, and we live much closer to the mall, we will walk the interior for exercise. We window shop as we walk and have laughed when we pass the now closed department store remembering back to those days. We have come a long way and yet still that man does what is needed to support my dreams. I am so thankful <3