90s California Runner Mom

It has been three months since I quit my job and I have zero regrets. I didn’t hate my job, but here are the main reasons I decided to leave after being there for 2 years. This wasn’t something I decided to do out of nowhere. I had wanted to quit my job since at least April 2020 and finally quit in September 2021.

I never planned for staying as long as I did. It was supposed to be a temporary job. I was only planning on staying there for 6 months or so, but then the pandemic happened. Jobs all over the place were closing or switching to work from home, so I just decided to stay at my job. Another reason I stayed is because in May 2021, they gave us a temporary raise from $16 to $21. Not a bad pay for working at a grocery store. This temporary raise ended in September and shortly after that I ended up quitting.

My coworkers and manager were great, but one of the biggest reasons I decided to finally quit was because of my schedule. I wanted to work at least 20 hours or more each week. However, I was working 4-12 hours most weeks. I also wanted to work only in the morning. After all, when I was hired, I was told I would be working mornings, from 3am-9am. My schedule wasn’t consistent and I was constantly working different shifts every week. Some days at 3am, other days at 5am, and still other days at 1pm. As a result of these random schedules, my sleep was horrible. I could never get used to sleeping at the same time every night because every day I had a different shift.

The last big reason is that I wanted to quit was to spend more time with my daughter. I had been working ever since she was 3 months old and was tired of missing out. While I didn’t work many hours, she spent a lot of time at my mom’s house, especially on the days when I worked in the morning. I would drop her off around 4pm or 5pm so that I could get ready for bed and be asleep by 7pm or 8pm. Then after getting out of work, I would go home to nap and would pick up my daughter later in the afternoon or until my day off. I have been spending so much time with her these past few months. Not only at home playing together and reading together, but we have been able to go to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Universal Studios to name a few.