Absenteeism At Its Worst/Best
Greetings once again! It has been quite some time since I've posted to the blog. In fact, it's been quite some time since I have written anything at all. It's been a wonder I can eke out time to do any shooting! If I were the manager of Me (oh, wait, I guess I am, sort of!) I would have already probably fired myself. The lack of communication and updated content to this website in the last six months has been appalling.
This is absenteeism at its worst. There is simply no excuse for it.
Well, actually, there are a few very good excuses for it....actually, not excuses, but some very good reasons.
Let me start with the BEST one.
Meet Nolan Everett Lewis. He is our first grandchild ever, thanks to our own first child and her husband. And he is the reason for my disappearance of late. But I can think of no better reason to be unavailable.
He is now nearly 4 months old, smart as a whip, and growing like a weed. I swear, the boy changes somehow every third day. And how do I know this?
Because I have been blessed to not only been present for his birth (thanks, Shay and Mitchell!), but I have also been his caregiver since he was about 7 weeks old, since both of his parents are school teachers.
Add to that his cousins, who join Nolan and me on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I have become a pretty busy grandma who has been thrust back into a 40 hour work week.
And while I love these sweet babies dearly, I can assure you, there is a sound reason why we have our offspring when we are young! Tuesdays and Thursdays are particularly physically challenging, as I then have three boys of different ages to watch- 2 months, 9 months, and five years old. Fortunately for tired old Grandma, the five year old is only home for lunch hour on those days, and then heads back to school. But lemme tell ya, never a dull moment on Tuesdays and Thursdays!
Yes, it has been challenging, and tiring too....I have had to temporarily put aside my own photography business, and haven't had a gig shooting a house or anything else since last winter. Yet at the same time, I've managed to find time to shoot with either camera or phone-- mostly iPhone, since his 9 month old cousin is a handful and wants to check out my camera-- but I wouldn't trade the time with my grandson during this quickly changing phase in his life for anything.
They are only little for a short time. His parents will be home with him all summer, and I can jump back in and build my business a bit more during summer break. So in the same way childhood is temporary, so is my absence from the photography business.
And I haven't abandoned photography completely; I have just found creative ways to keep my hands on a camera. Shooting Nolan's progress as he grows....shooting the older cousins, for family memories....and I began building up my stock photography portfolio as well, and even had a few sales through Shutterstock and Dreamstime in the last six months.
My stock image sales won't buy me a sandwich, at this point, but the stock game is played with the goal of creating a semi-passive income, adding a little to my other photography income streams, while honing my photography skills. Plus, I can work it in around babysitting, any ol' time.
Now that it's Spring, I need to re-market myself to my past Real Estate clientele, let them know I am still here, and that I'm available now full time through the summer, since Nolan's mom and dad are out of school. Also need to put myself out there for Event photography, while I'm at it. That'll get me out of the house more too!
Come Fall, the two cousins will be in school. Well, the older one will be in kindergarten all day. The middle one will be over a year old, and his mom, who teaches school with my daughter, has decided to have him start preschool. She believes kids need that "socialization". My own situation and parenting views were different, and that's okay--every parent is different, so no judgment whatsoever from me!
And Nolan? When school starts back in the Fall, Grandma will get to have Nolan to herself all day, 40 hours a week again. Nolan will be crawling by then, and Grandma will once again be keeping a newly-mobile little one out of trouble. The camera may earn a little less money, but it will still be needed for photographs.
My daughter is looking toward placing Nolan in preschool by the time he is two or so. Part of me is a little sad, but part of me is excited to be able to follow dreams I willingly put aside when I decided to become a mom.
Regulations require one adult per infant in a daycare situation. And infants require, naturally, a LOT of attention, to meet their physical needs as well as developmental and safety needs. These regulations make preschool/daycare for infants is ridiculously costly- but with good reason. However, for these young parents infant daycare is unreasonably pricey. These kids are professionals with college loans to pay, still, and now families to feed. The kids have a tougher decision than I had at that stage of life.
And I'm okay with their choice. Grandma can provide that individualized care more affordably....but also, Grandma has a lot more invested in her grandson than the daycare center does. Nolan will get one step better than the finest daycare can offer, because he has Grandma's love.
Grandma makes a lot less money babysitting that than taking pictures.....but money isn't everything. Childhood and grandparenting is temporary. Everything in this world is temporary.
Especially Nolan's time as a cuddly sweet baby. And time.....you can't get that back. So, I am blessed to be "that" Grandma.
In reality, this is absenteeism at its best.