Mum by day - event medic by night! (Part 1)



Lucie's youngest who's nearly five.

By Lucie Reece, part one of a three-part blog.

It's Evening.

The children are asleep and I'm off into Wellington tonight, leaving Daddy in charge. I've got my boots and my outfit sorted, I'm just hoping that there are not too many drunks out tonight. I take just the essentials with me, gloves, glasses, phone, radio, resuss bag. No, that's not some designer bag (although the price might be quite similar!) it's a resuscitation kit.

It has the basic essentials that I can use, to help keep someone alive.

My name is Lucie and I am a volunteer event medic for Wellington Free Ambulance.

How I got here? Well apart from the obvious (ambulance! - insert childish giggle) I'm still surprised myself.

Twelve years ago I thought I had my life planned out. I was a trained nursery nurse in the UK, I loved children and could see no other career path that I wanted to take. I thought by the time I was 30 I would own my own childcare centre and be the perfect boss.

So, imagine my surprise, that with my 30th birthday descending on me fast, I am married, have three children, I live in New Zealand and I have no plan to work with children! This was not the plan.

With my youngest turning five this year, I am facing the big scary world of work once again. But now I have a dilemma, I'm trained to work with children but I don't have the patience to work with them and then come home to my own children! It's not fair on them. Also it has to be a job that fits in with the children, I want to be able to pick them up from school and go to the after school activities.

Working from home would be awesome, if I had a skill that you could be your own boss. I don't.So, I need a job that has short hours, pays well, school holidays off and doesn't involve children. Dream on!

I'm facing the reality that many parents face, I am going to have to learn new skills and face the working world once again. This puts me in the new dilemma of having to think about what I would like to be when I grow up. I never thought I would have to start from scratch again. I could waitress, but I'm terrible at making a good kiwi flat white. I could be a police officer but it’s slightly too dangerous for me.

So what shall I do when my youngest starts school... Catch up with the second part of Lucie’s blog tomorrow.