Sun-rising As A House Keeper

Have you ever played that ice-breaker game "Tell us one thing that no one knows about you?" It seems recently I have been involved in this game. Each time I have hesitated to tell my secret. It's not that I was embarrassed about my secret. I was more concerned of the perceived opinion of why I was doing it rather than the fact of what I was doing. And so it was when it came my turn I would think of something else that others would not know about me.

A few people in my life that are very close to me know what it is that I am referring to. For about a year and a half I have been getting up early on Friday mornings to go to work. Most people know that I am licensed real estate broker and of course think that this is the only work that I do. It had been since March of 2005. Around 2008 things changed, drastically. Our local real estate market crashed right about the time that I was ready to deliver our son Michael.

With the down market I found a great distraction in being home with my son. A true blessing really. I continued to work in real estate while enjoying my time with our son. At the same time our daughter was starting her transition from graduating high school and entering the world of University. Thankfully she obtained a 4 year full tuition scholarship to a wonderful private university. One condition of the scholarship was that she must reside on campus all four years. An expense that according to FAFSA we can afford to pay. With the additional expense of a baby and a student living on campus we began to feel the pain of the down market.

With Tom already working a full time job we began to look at my job and my income. We really enjoyed working in real estate and had a plan for the future of both of us working together full time in real estate. It seemed as though I had a choice to make. I could either work more in real estate or I could quit real estate and find a full time job that met our financial needs. Both of which meant putting our son in day care more often. Exactly what I did not want. And so it was that I went in search of a way to make the money we needed while maintaining time with our son.

I looked at a lot of job postings online. I went to a couple of interviews for part time Admin work. Inevitably they asked the question of where I saw myself in 1, 2 or 3 years. And quite honestly, I didn't know. What I knew was that I wanted to make the money my family needed me to make while being able to be the wife and mother that I longed to be. I happened to be speaking with a friend that said she cleaned houses and was paid $30/hr. Thirty dollars an hour? Are you serious!? Every job I had looked into was paying $10-15 per hour. I began to think that house cleaning might be something that I could do.

And so I did. I met with 3 different home owners and set up cleaning for them every other Friday. And so it was that every Friday morning I would get up and head out with my cleaning clothes on and my cleaning supplies in the trunk of my car. One job took 5 hours, another took 3.5 hours and the last one took 2.5 hours. I cleaned one house one Friday and the other two I cleaned the next Friday. Each home was cleaned every other Friday. It was a nice routine. There were many times when after cleaning I would change my clothes (even in my car) and head to a real estate appointment. I continued to work with all of our clients in real estate and meet new clients.

This past year business picked up again and I found it was time to let the house cleaning job go and focus completely on real estate again. Yesterday was my final day in cleaning, for now. I say for now, as I never know what life will bring. I was never embarrassed or ashamed that I was a house keeper. My fear was that my real estate clients would think that I was not 'Full Time' in real estate and thus not want to work with me. What I was doing was everything necessary to provide what my family needed at the time. I admire people who do just that. I admire a man who works 2-3 jobs so his wife can stay home with the children. I admire a family that has their parents move in with them to help with childcare so the parents can work the jobs they need to in order to provide for their family. I admire a strong work ethic and a sense of responsibility to get the job done to provide for your family.

And yet, it always bothered me that I felt I was hiding this. What I desire is to be an open book. To be accepted and at times respected for the choices I make. I don't look down upon others and yet I worry about others looking down upon me. I need to give myself the same chance that I give to others. So here it is, in black and white, I was sun-rising as a house keeper for a while. In the future if my family needs me to I will do it again in a heart beat. For now, I am just a wife, a mother, a real estate broker and an active church go-er at Westside Church in Ballard.