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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I feel so lost career-wise.  I'm 40 and I make $20 per hour.  I was a National Merit Finalist at a college prep high school, graduated an Ivy League college with honors, went to a solid state grad school, got a masters degree with honors, worked in that field for awhile, and then SAH for 2 years.  I took this particular part-time job (not related to my masters/old career field) because of the flexibility and family-friendly aspect.  But I find it very depressing that I'm 40 and make $20 per hour.  We do not need my salary, husband is a law firm partner, but I just feel really depressed that this is where I ended up.  My self-esteem is low.  I feel like I peaked in high school/college and it was all downhill from there career-wise.

What would you do?  I feel so incredibly lost career-wise and I have no idea where to go from here.[/quote]

Hi OP. I could have written this. 
And I'm trying to work out in my own mind why I'm crashing hard over this, but I think it's because I feel like I've swallowed the current cultural-think that our careers define our value in life. I just feel it everywhere. And it's even overriding how I have always viewed the way I wanted to live and parent. I've always always been an overachiever. And that includes the way I thought about parenting. So for me, it was important (or at least I used to think it was) to be home when my kids were home. (Yes, I know this is not the current thinking. We can choose to farm this out to childcare afterschool and in summers for school-age kids, and most people do. I get that. But I never *wanted* to! And I do think there is value for our family in my doing this job myself), and yet now I am feeling as if I'm sort of a loser for not having some high-paying job like basically everyone else. Because if I did, we would have a bigger house, larger travel budget, and I'd definitely get more admiration from peers, etc. The problem is, I don't really want the career. I just don't want to be looked down on for "just staying at home," but I have definitely fallen into that and have started to look down on myself. Can't seem to get past it. And that isn't good.[/quote]

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