Just Say No?

A full-time job. I have one of those already. Until I was a mom, I really didn't understand that parenting and keeping house took so much time.

However, the college called today to see if I could possibly help them. They are interviewing for full-time tenure track positions right now. I did not apply for that position, because I am not ready to work full-time. If the person who currently serves as the annually contracted faculty gets the tenure track position, then that position (the ACF) will be open. The college will be in a hurry to fill it, and the department wanted to know if I could fill it for spring quarter.

The job would entail teaching 18 credit hours, which is quite a bit. Therefore, I would have lots of grading to do, much of which I would be required to do at home. Furthermore, I would be gone Monday through Thursday, from about 7:15 am until 5 pm. I am toying with the opportunity, but here is what comes immediately to mind.

1. Daycare. Our babysitter is great, but would she want to come 4 days a week, all day? In addition, that cost would probably eat up any money I would make.
2. Appointments. We have all our appointments set up for the spring. Dentist, orthodontist, optometrist. I'd have to call and switch all of those times to a Friday, if that is possible, or else put them off until summer. Hmmm.
3. Cooking, cleaning, homework. Who would make dinner? I never start dinner at 5 pm. That time is just too late to start things cooking. I could probably ask the babysitter to start things out, but during that time of the afternoon, it is also important to help the kids with homework. And cleaning? Well, that would have to be pushed to the weekends.
4. Weekends. I suspect that these would be jam packed with everything that didn't get done during the week: grocery shopping, spending time with the kids, laundry, and more grading, of course. While I don't relax much on the weekends as it is right now, I think that any hope of relaxation would essentially be out the window.

I called Tim and told him the situation, and I emailed Brooke and asked her what her position was on the whole thing. In essence, it is my decision. If the kids were all in school full-time, I think it would be a great opportunity to feel out the full-time job thing. But I truly feel that if I take this opportunity now, I will most likely just feel like tearing my hair out by the end of the quarter, and I am pretty certain that Tim and the kids won't like me so much. In fact, Tim? The kids? I might not even be able to tell you who those people are!

So Brooke, if you are reading, feel free to say that you cannot imagine taking on this responsibility right now. I'd completely understand if you want to keep your schedule the way it is, so that you have ample time to devote to your real job. You'd be giving me a great excuse to just say no to the college.