Mutterschutz
Like so many German words, "Mutterschutz" is a decently literal compound word, made up of "Mutter" (mother) and "Schutz" (protection). Mother-protection is the name for the German policy of not allowing pregnant people to work during the last 6 weeks leading up to their due date. This is paid time off covered in part by health insurance and in part by one's employer.
Unfortunately, this policy doesn't apply to me because I work freelance for a Canadian company. However, if I were an employee of a German company, my paid leave would have begun last Thursday. Instead, I'm training my replacement this week and quitting my job at the end of the month.
To be fair, I picked this timeline. I could have quit sooner, but I'm paid monthly and I decided leaving on May 31st and having my final paycheck be around its usual amount made sense. I could also have taken unpaid parental leave from my job, and they would have welcomed me back in three to six months, but I didn't even really entertain that idea. I don't like the job that much and it doesn't pay especially well so, I'd rather just look for something new when I'm ready to go back to work. In the unlikely event that I find myself strapped for cash and desperate for paid work, I think this company would probably re-hire me. But I'd rather my next job be another writing gig (instead of a virtual assistant gig) or, you know, an actual job instead of a gig.
Ideally, I'd like to work for a German company and enjoy all the benefits that entails, like, for example, Mutterschutz. I have no idea if we'll want to have a second child (we're going to see how it goes with the little lizard first!), but, if we do, I'd like to be pregnant under different circumstances than I am right now. Obviously, the circumstances will be different because we'll already have one child (insert scream-face emoji here - doing this again with a toddler in the mix sounds awfully overwhelming). But, if I were to be pregnant again, there are two other things I'd like to be different:
I would love for there to not be a pandemic.
I would love to be meaningfully employed - earning money doing something I like - or back in school training for a career that will earn me money doing something I like.
Unfortunately, number 1 isn't something I have control over, which leaves number 2, but I'm really not sure what fulfilling my desire to be meaningfully employed looks like. And now isn't exactly the time to figure it out, which brings me back to Mutterschutz.
I know people work right up until they go into labor all the time, but I am in the privileged position to not have to do that. And so I am trying to cut myself some slack and let myself focus on resting and preparing for the baby's arrival. With this in mind, I'm not going to start a new 'on' cycle for On / Off right now.
This is issue #81 of this newsletter, and I'm really not sure when issue #82 will come out. Maybe I'll find myself craving this writing outlet next month while I wait for the little lizard to make an appearance. Maybe cycling this newsletter 'on' will be how I dip my toe back into writing after a couple months of new motherhood. Maybe I'll never come back to this project. All I know is that I want to give myself some flexibility in the coming weeks and months.
Since I started writing On / Off last July(!), it has both helped and frustrated me. I'm proud of some of the pieces I've written and I've loved hearing your thoughts on these newsletters when you've felt inspired to share them. The accountability aspect of sending out a newsletter has been invaluable to me. I've written many, many more words doing this project than I would have if I just put an hour-long writing block on my calendar each day and didn't share my work with anyone.
So, thank you for allowing me to share my work with you.