political animals or what I learned about the real world in ten years of being a stay at home mum

If you had asked me this time last year if I would ever go back to paid work I would have said no.

I was comfortable being a stay at home special mum, I had more than enough to keep me occupied mentally with the kid's educational and therapeutic needs, and I actively sought out and made social contacts with other Mums.



I was involved very heavily in campaigning for improved services for kids with autism and I worked actively in my school community to raise funds and negotiate for these.

I also blogged quite a bit, keeping my brain active but open to other thoughts and views from all over the world.



Financially, the tax breaks and carer's allowance we got for being "just poor enough" to qualify made it almost viable; I just needed to maintain a close personal friendship with the credit union to juggle things around each month, and my thrift habit was based on need as well as want.



But cometh the hour, cometh the offer.

I had first one, then the other child accepted by a full service comprehensive applied behavioural analysis school which is 80% state funded and staffed by qualified teachers and therapists.


Suddenly I could stop fighting.

Suddenly, well not quite suddenly as transitioning first Boo then Bratty took a little time as their school day was so much more intense they had shorter days to start with, and then there was the summer to be got through...

But eventually I got both the guys settled and I was getting home at 10.30am with no worries to occupy me for the day. No phone calls, no public service mandarins or obstreperous holders of a Dip Ed in obstinacy, obstruction and obfuscation to give me the gurgling stomach acid that kept me thin and anxious for the last 6 years.

So somewhere in the universe, there was a gap.......