Work

I have worked somewhere since I was 13 years old.  Before and during high school, I worked at our school community's bookstore.  It was a job I loved: we girls would unload the new books and prepare them for the upcoming school year. Old books were treated in the opposite way - numbers removed and prepared for resale to the community.
After high school, I worked for a doctor who didn't work too far from my alma mater - IU, so it was easy to work around my classes and convenient to either drive or walk when necessary.
When I went to Germany, I had a wonderful job there teaching mini German classes to incoming American soldiers.  They were taught enough German to be able to go to a pub or restaurant and order, take public transportation, visit museums, etc.  I had always worked either part time or full time plus attending school full time despite the fact that I had a muscular illness.
Then I met and married my husband.  Soon, I was not being offered any more classes at the education center.  I later found out that this was at my husband's request.  He didn't want the soldiers looking at me.
After 13 years of working and going to school full time, I was left with nothing to do.  I then spend my time roaming the city where we lived, returning to the hobbies I previously enjoyed, like knitting and quilting, and learnining new crafting ideas. I did enjoy crafting, but I hated the idea that my husband considered me too weak to work; I didn't know that he had also told my boss that the men couldn't look at me.
After a few years, I became pregnamt with twins, followed two years later with a single. That kept me busy for a while, but I was still sewing and crafting, making clothes and toys for the kids.  One day, I decided to try a new business: making clothes and other things to sell through the mail.  When I presented my idea to my husband, he had a fit.  I was "too sick" to do that.  A few days later, I received a phone call from his mother; she told me how lucky I was that I didn't have to work. But I WANTED to work, and with my husband's work schedule, I couldn't work outside of the home.
So, I didn't begin my business.  I stayed at home, making things for the kids and for gifts for friends and family becoming more and more depressed.  He was gone approximately six months out of the year, so he couldn't be a dependable baby sitter if I worked, and my pay wouldn't cover a baby sitter for three small children, even then. The children became even more important to me than before.