recorderonline.com:
Tammy Booth, a Springville stay-at-home mom, has a different story to tell when it comes to why she came in from the office.
She stays at home, but home is the office from which she works.
Booth is a virtual administrative assistant.“That means, I can do anything an executive assistant can do for you except get you coffee,” she said.
Before moving to Springville in May 2007, the Booth family lived in Thousand Oaks and she worked in Century City.
“I was very unhappy taking my daughter to day care and leaving her for 10 to 12 hours a day,” Booth said. “She was in day care eight to 10 hours, and then there was the travel time. Her dad would pick her up, so I wouldn’t personally see her for long stretches of time. She would call me and say, ‘Mommy, I need you.’ It would break my heart.”
The family moved to Springville after three years of visiting friends there, and getting to see what it was like in the area, Booth said.
They wanted to get horse property, a daunting task with the exorbitant home prices in Southern California.
The family decided to move when they realized her job was moveable, and her husband is in a field (computers) wherein he could go into any industry.
“It was also because of the lifestyle here,” she said. “It’s not quite so fast, not so densely populated.”
Even so, a stay-at-home mom anywhere will have her challenges.
“When I tell people that I changed my line of work and came home to be near my children, it seemed to take away from my professionalism,” Booth said. “From the executive ranks, it was like ‘Oh!’
“Yet, I was clearly able to put out the same quality of product, but they seem to think I was at home eating bonbons. I think I ate and drank more in an office setting because at home I’m always busy, always there’s something I need to get done.”
The joys she experiences, she said, are insurmountable.
Photo by Banalities