On Job Seeking and Africa
May 27, 2007 at 10:07 AM
by Ashleigh
So the interview was good. I think I talked too much, but hey, it's better than sitting in strictured silence waiting to be asked a question!
I had trouble working out what to wear. At home I wear jeans, t-shirts, 'mom' clothes. Even though here in Holland 'mom' clothes are probably smarter than mom clothes in the USA or UK - no tracksuits here! - I still needed something a bit more upmarket. I ended up with a red striped blouse and my normal black trousers. When I got to the interview I was reminded about how much 'those who work' spend on clothes. Wow.
My primary interviewer was a Jackpot fashionplate. The other interviewer was all cool skintones and pearls.
And there I was, all hot and bothered from the tram. Why wasn't Amsterdam its usual cloudily cool self? It decided to reach 26C on my interview day!
The job looks like I would like it, and I can mostly fit it in with school. 10h00 - 14h00 every day. The only days I have trouble with are Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesday both kids finish at 12 and on Friday Joe finishes at 12 while Seb stays til 3. Wednesdays my friend can take them, but Fridays we are both a bit lost because at the moment I take her son home while she works. I think we need to expand our childcare co-op a bit.
The daycare that is attached to our school is a dead loss. I would need to sign both kids up for 2 full afternoons at a cost of 226 euros per month per child! I don't need 2 full afternoons - I need 3 hours for one child and 5 hours for the other. Added to which if I paid 500 a month for childcare for those two afternoons I'd be spending my time working for the love of it, and much though I do like the raison d'etre behind this particular job, I still don't want to work only to put the kids in daycare.
When our school was changed into being one of the pilots of the 'Brede School' system for our area, the idea was to allow parents to have flexible times for childcare, letting you choose how many hours you needed per week and allowing you to be flexible about those hours. Subsequently the contract has been handed to a professional daycare provider and all of a sudden the costs are completely out of line with the service and there is a minimum number of days as a requirement, and fixed day subscription. There were also promises about allowing under-educated moms to work in the daycare and achieve certification thus giving them the option of a better future. But alas.. that seems to have disappeared.
I don't understand it. Recently we've been bombarded with material in the Dutch press from the government saying that stay-at-home moms are a drain on the resources of the country, that when the population greys and there is no-one to work it will be our fault, that we undermine the economy.... blah blah blah.
There seem to be no practical steps being taken to get moms to work. If it's a tossup between institutionalising my child to earn a salary which pays only for the institutionalisation, and staying at home ... I know which one I'll choose.
Hmm, I need to get my Dutch brushed up and go work for womens rights in parliament. And then I can go work for a conservative American thinktank leaving behind the women I am supposed to be representing. Hah.
Speaking of Dutch language skills, my Dutch course comes to an end just before the summer and I won't be able to continue because the college administration, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that for next year the fee will be 800 euros per semester. Uh.... I think for that I'll study at home and hone my Dutch skills in talking to the old men at the allotment!
About Africa.. well, Kelli is in Mozambique doing good things so I've been thinking about it a lot recently. I have a sudden longing to go back. I had a look at airfares yesterday and for me and the kids to fly to Zimbabwe is absolutely shocking - 4000 euros! I miss my family and I'm worried about my dad. He's 69 now and my mom says he is getting a bit overwhelmed.
We watched Blood Diamond last night. It was good but I always feel such utter despair when I watch those kinds of films.
Part of me wants to be there and be doing something to change how things are, and the other part of me thinks 'wow, I'm so lucky to be here in Holland'. Its a bit like having a split personality. Did you know when I dream, I am always in Africa?
In the movie Danny Archer's accent is wrong. They cast him as an ex-Rhodesian, but his accent is very Saffer... I think I have to do a voice clip so you can hear a real white-Zimbabwean accent, albeit one with foreign influences, but let's just say I never say 'bru', 'boet', or 'laaik'.
Visually he fits the image very well, face permanently screwed up from staring into that peculiar white light you get in Africa, crumpled khakis (my dad still wears khakis), and even his walk captures the white-man-in-Africa very well.
I loved the Maputo footage and when I watched I could almost throw myself backwards in time to hear the sea, serenely lapping at the beach at Inhassoro.
Comments
Is that 226/child your ouderbijdrage (1/3 of the child care costs -- the other 2/3 are paid by your employer en Joe's employer)? Because when I worked, I paid that much for both kids combined -- 2,5 days for Anna and an afterschool (15.30 - 18.00) for Mirthe. My employer paid a third of the costs, and when Eric's employer refused to pay their share, we got most of those costs back from the Belastingdienst. Check with Joe's employer to see if they'll pay their share, and if you get the job, ask about their kinderopvangregeling -- if they won't pay their share, you can get that back from the B-dienst. (Or do the test at www.toeslagen.nl)
You could also look into a gastouder -- someone who'd pick up the kids from school and look after them until you got home. These costs are usually quite reasonable and also fall under the parent/employer/employer three way split.
Or maybe you already know all this :-) In any case, I'm crossing fingers that you'll get the job you want!
I like to think of childcare as an expense taken from the combined income of both you and your partner. If you see your job as *just* paying for childcare, you're right - often the job does just that, and no more! But if you see it as a percentage of your combined incomes, the deal gets sweeter. Not to mention your work experience, which will help your career enormously if and when you get back to full time work in the future.
Tough decisions. Good luck, and keep us posted!
I'm in much the same situation as you are. Been home for 7 years and hesitating to go back to work now that the youngest is in school too. So I recognize all hesitations. Yeah, getting work experience is a good thing and a new job migt be a stepping stone to a better paid one later on. And in theory it is nice to assume the costs should be seen as a percentage of *both* incomes. In reality however your family income stays more or less the same and you have less time available for all other important things.
People sometimes wonder wether I have a problem with the fact that my husband earns all the money ("don't you feel bad spending *his* money?"). I usually reply that after I'm paid for childcare, cleaning and cooking he is happy to have some pocketmoney left ;)
Right now I'm hesitating between going for a study next year, working for myself, or finding a job. Since we go on a long holiday this summer I'll let it simmer and decide after the summerholiday.
Hope the job hunt works out for you and you get the childcare arrangements you need. Funny how different Germany and Holland are, despite being neighbours. Here is it presumed that a child will be at home and cared for by either a parent, grandparent or minder. A mother who goes out to work and relies on the State to care for her child from 8am to 6pm is considered a "rabenmutter" - a very insulting, former Nazi term, now slang, to mean a selfish woman who puts herself first. Oddly enough, there are no rabenvaters.
OK, i will be the one that dissagrees :) I think the blessings of work are overrated. Work is not about socializing, following your dreams or expanding your skills. It can be, but that's not the reason to work. Work is about earning money and if you don't or very little, i would not bother... even making money is not always necessary as you have more possibilities as a stay-at-home mom to save money. Home cooked meals, growing your own vegetables, etc., etc.
Interesting, i read kelli's blog too. I am in awe of her being out there making things happen. Meanwhile, i'm here on the computer, and learning french which maybe maybe someday will help me do a good dead here on the village street. sigh :). thank goodness for good people, and here's to good intentions!
Yep, we also yanked Max out of the formerly-laid-back reasonably-affordable after school care (for those impossible Wednesdays) when our school made the change. The Brede School sounds so good in theory, but in reality, everything (including staying over for lunch) has become expensive to the point where there's no choice but to make cutbacks. Sigh. I've also heard all the arguments about moms who actually dare to stay home and raise their families themselves, and been drawn into the occasionally "debate". It appears to me to be a no-win situation, the way the system is currently set up. :(
Who is Kelli?
Ash: click the link on Kelli's name and you'll see :)
May 27, 2007 11:51 AM