I'm musing again on future careers. But once again, everything seems to need proper training and that costs money and time - neither of which I'm blessed with in abundance. If only I knew which was the right path to go down, it would be worth making an investment of time and money (well, if we actually had the money to invest that is!). But how do I know which is the right way to go? There's so many things I'm interested in and if only I could do one of them without any further training, I would like a shot. But all of them seem to need training that costs £1000-£1500 which may not be a huge amount in the long run, but is a very large amount to us.
There's several things that I would like to do as a career if I could just get on with them right now and not have to go through a period of a year or two's training. After all, I have to consider the children - they are and will be my first priority for some time to come yet.
There's just too many variables and too many options. I hate to be hemmed in with no choices, but on the other hand I freeze up and can't function in the presence of too much choice. How picky I am! It seems very scary to spend £1500 and a year of my (and the children's) lives on something that I can't be certain will be the fulfilling and interesting career I'm looking for at the end of it all.
It seems that the NCT antenatal teacher is not a option for the moment at least as the training very definitely includes several residential weekends away which is not an option for my family right now. Maybe a few years down the line, but not right now. So that's out. I looked into training as a life coach but that didn't quite seem right either. And also cost at least £1500 and up to £4000 for training (eek!). So that's out too. So, reflexology is another option which I've considered at various points in my life but not ever actually made a firm decision on. Again, it costs about £1500 and would take about a year of going up to central London for Saturdays, or Sundays (about 1 or 2 a month for 9 or 10 months) and only being back for H's bedtime (well, a bit after actually). I'm a bit unsure. In fact, I'm a lot unsure. Maybe I should just stick with the minimum wage online work I'm already doing for a while. After all, until my husband does his course and finds work, we don't know where we are with either time or money and the chances are we won't actually have the money for a reflexology course anyway.
Or maybe there's another job option out there that I haven't considered. Probably. Maybe I'll keep on looking for a while longer. But how will I know when I find the right thing? Should I be expecting some sort of thunderbolt or 'falling in love' type feeling? Or would I wait a lifetime and still not get that? Bearing in mind that I already know where my passion lies and that's in writing. (Which I am also still trying to make a go of.)
Argh, too many options, too many thoughts. If only I had a bottle of cooking sherry, I'd be on that while I cooked tea, but as I haven't, I'd better go and cook tea sober.
About Me
- Liz
- I am a stay-at-home mother to an 8 year old daughter and a 5 year old son who are home educated. I also have an allotment, a partner, 2 step-daughters on occasion, and a cat, but not much spare time. I'm a Pagan and a writer.
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9 comments:
Oh you are EXACTLY the same as me Liz. I can't decide either - it's so infuriating isn't it!
FWIW when I was training with the NCT there were always at least 2 or 3 other women that came to the residential weekends with their entire family and it really wasn't an issue.
It is very frustrating. And I have been finding the NCT a bit frustrating too in trying to get straight answers to my questions - I talked to our local tutor and she was really vague on very important issues - although she was very clear on the families at residentials thing - she said that this was very much discouraged, only if you had a tiny baby and even then discouraged as it upset other students who hadn't brought their families plus the weekends were so intensive that you wouldn't have time to deal with families which were with you anyway! And she added for good measure that the facilities weren't set up for children and there'd be nothing for them to do all day. And even if you were just brining a baby you'd ahve to get permission from the residential tutor and it might not be granted. So that was that really. I can't risk starting the course and then permission not being granted. So they've rather shot themselves in the foot with the so-called 'family-friendly' training. I've since talked to a couple of other people who haven't trained because of this overnight issue.
Don't know if they've tightened up on this recently or if it's something that varies form place to place and from tutor to tutor...
I'm not entirely sure where you live honey; but I was thinking that Kent Adult Education offer a lot of free and reasonable priced courses. These would at least give you a chance to try and see what you make of say reflexology.
I'm sure Adult Education in your area does a similar thing... and if your family receives any benefits you should get hte course free or for a mininmal charge.
Oh,t he other thing I wanted to say - if you do not have a level 3 qualification then you should qualify for funding to help with any courses.
HTH
Joxy.
Don't get me started with the benefits - over 6 weeks now and they've not made a decision on our JSA - apparently I'm the only person in the world who has ever been self-employed and they're completely stumped as to how to make a decision on my husband's application!
I've already done a couple of taster courses of reflexology and enjoyed them, which was why I considered it in the first place. So there isn't really anything else now between more of the same and the full monty course (reflexology-wise, not stripping!). Maybe I should consider stripping? There's got to be someone out there with a fetish for stretch-marks...
Well, if there is then let me know!! LOL
Maybe they have tightened up on it, when I was on my weekends there were a mixture of people with babies, and people with husbands/partners and older children.
The partners and older children were expected to 'get on with it' but as the residentials are always at big country hotels with loads of grounds and generally a swimming pool it didn't seem to be a problem.
Which tutor did you talk to? I know some of them....
I spoke to Fiona Barlow, she's my local tutor. I hate all this uncertainty - you ask 3 people the same question, you get 3 different answers so you just don;t know where you are!
Blimey you sound exactly the same as me too. And I have spent time in the past training for jobs, and just ending up not enjoying them. You just never know what a job is like until you've done it for a bit. And it is so hard to commit time and money to something you're not 100% sure about. I wish you luck, and I'll be interested in what you do end up doing.
Oh dear, she might read this.... (gulp) Fiona is nice but I can totally see her saying this, it wouldn't be her that would be doing your weekends though and yes, NCT is a 3 different answers type of organisation being, as it is, entirely populated by strong minded women!
If you really think you'd enjoy the job then just go for the training and take your family along to the weekends with you, it would be fine, there are a few weekends a year so you could actually contact the tutors on each and choose the one where they are nicest :-)
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