The end of the House Husband

I am thrilled to say that the husbeast is no longer unemployed! <insert cheering and muppet arms* here>

After nearly three months of searching for a job he finally got an acceptable job offer on Friday. There is a sense of relief I am not sure I can explain. I mean we were surviving on my paycheck and his unemployment, but really not quite. I mean surviving covered the bills but not stuff like gas and groceries. We were slowly draining our joke of a savings and another month and we would have been in trouble.

We are both excited that he is employed, although not necessarily the job. I am not sure how many of you have dealt with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) or if all unemployment is the same in every state, but with the TWC you are required to accept any job offered to you that is: 1) A comparable pay rate to what you were previously receiving, and 2) Within a reasonable distance from your home.

These rules are good I suppose. I mean he didn't have to accept a job that was grossly under what he is used to making. Heck the limit they set was actually higher than his previous base salary due to the fact that he is a salesman and they factored in commissions. Also he didn't have to accept a job that would have him doing a three hour commute every day, which is totally possible in DFW.

It does mean however that if he interviews for a job he despises but they offer him the job, and it is a comparable salary close to home, he has to accept it or lose unemployment. So in that vein it is really an unfortunate set of rules they have tethered him to.

I am not saying he hates the job he took. Don't think that. He is actually very excited about the job. It offers him some new opportunities, the pay is great, and it is like 5 minutes from the house if he catches all three red lights and the school zone between here and there.

The problem mostly stems from the fact that after months of searching with almost no opportunities presenting themselves, this week he has been flooded with options. He took more interviews for viable jobs this week than he has in three months. It is feast or famine with job hunting, and he had just hit the feast part of it.

I think he is nervous that by taking the first job that was offered to him he is passing up on something that would be better. Not necessarily better money wise, but more importantly a better job for him. A job he will be happier in. A job that will bring him satisfaction. A job that will be fulfilling. You know basically a job that can be a career and not something that is just a pay check.

Then again that might be the job he has taken. Only time will really tell if this was a good decision or not. It is however the wisest decision. It is the decision that will keep us in our home and fed. In the end he can keep looking for work while he is employed, and the worst thing that can happen is he finds himself unemployed again. It isn't like we don't know how to deal with that situation.

In the mean time I am going to have to go back to cleaning the kitchen and doing the laundry on my own again. It figures, just when he is getting the hang of keeping up with the housework he finds a job. Oh well. C'est la vie.



*You know when muppets dance they mostly just wave their arms in the air in a very excited fashion. Yea so when my friends and I get excited someone normally says 'muppet arms' to indicate excitement. And then we wave our arms in the air like we were muppets.