time and worth

Just for kicks today, I decided to calculate what my gross income would be per year if I were still receiving the wage I was paid at my last job. You know, the one I left to become a stay-at-home-mom. I figured that wage was fitting, considering my last job title: zookeeper. I didn't truly change jobs; I simply switched species - orders, even, if we're being scientific - and got longer hours, less vacation, and no paid time off or sick leave. Or monetary compensation!

So, here's the breakdown:

• My kids are up for roughly 12 hours a day, so I counted myself as "on the clock" for 11 hours. We do a roughly 1-hour Quiet Time daily after lunch; my little sanity break.
• I'm a mom, I don't get days off, so I counted myself as working 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

All told, it came out to nearly $55,000 per year. Fifty-five grand! We could live on that. Comfortably. Debt-free.

I was on the junior end of the spectrum, and thus the pay-scale, at work when I left; so this is a rather conservative estimate of what my time is actually worth.

Don't get the wrong idea, here. I love my kids. This was an exercise born of pure curiosity. It's also a bit of validation on the days things feel blah; the days I feel like an automaton picking up yet another mess, cooking yet another meal, doing yet another load of laundry. We can, and do, live off the time and effort I put into my job.