Monday, June 28, 2010

Makeover Intervention Needed NOW

Originally posted on NYC Moms blog  June 8, 2010

After I was laid off last year and given the rather sad job market, I decided to start a blog to enhance my social media skills which was a gap on my resume. Who knew, I would end up enjoying writing about my crazy life raising my daughter as a single mom in New York City, or best of all, get invited to cool events where I met other great mom (and dad) bloggers while I job searched.

Of course, looking on the positive side to being unemployed, I was able to spend more time with my daughter. I love being able to drop her off at school without having to rush off to work and not having to juggle the gazillion babysitters for pick up so I could work late. And of course, I now have the time to work on getting healthier by going to the gym.

The flip side to all this is that writing and job searching is a solitary experience. Since I am not married or have a significant person in my life, it's just my daughter and me. And because I don't have to go to the office in business attire, my wardrobe consists of sweat pants, a white t-shirt, sneakers and no make-up, not even lipstick.

Occasionally, over the past year, I have had in-person interviews which forces me to "dress up" but honestly, I always feel underdressed or not quite put together. I have been out of the game too long and have no idea how to dress anymore?  How is that possible after only 9 months? I am so ecstatic when the initial interview is a phone interview just so I don't have to deal with getting out of my sweat pants attire.

This is New York City, fashion capital, I am surrounded by fashionable people all day, every day. You would think that would mentally force me to attempt to look cute on a daily basis. Every so often, I will try to put on make up and wear cute clothes for pick up or just running errands but that little effort lasts a about a day. Being pretty takes work.

Then, I started getting invited to blog events. I thought that would snap me out of my fashion funk.  I treated the blog events like work events, wore business casual and actually put on make up.  I was actually excited to put in the effort.  But I realized that most of the bloggers who attend these events, just wear jeans so I started wearing jeans. I did not even bother to wear cute shoes, just comfortable ones. And trust me, I have cute shoes. 

Then last week, I reached a new low. I actually went straight from the gym to my hair appointment in my sweaty, stinky gym clothes. I did not even make the effort to bring a change of clothes to the gym so I could shower and change. At the end of the day, I thought to myself, I seriously need a makeover or a new job to get me out of my clothes funk.

I would love to hear from other work at home moms. How do you keep your appearance from heading down the tubes? I need an makeover intervention, NOW!


1 comments:

Dom Casas said...

One important thing to remember, you're not alone. There are other single moms out there going through similar situations. Sometimes it helps just to vent and give each other encouraging words. Through the forum you can talk about anything that might be on your mind and provide support for other moms.

single moms

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