Home Economists Moke Time For Families With Free-Lance Career
BY CAROLYN GILLES
Crawford Co. Correspondent
ERIE Many women agonize
over the choice of career or family.
But to Lynn Clint and Rhonda
Schember of Erie, the choice
wasn’t as mutually exclusive as
they originally thought it would
be.
Both Lynn and Rhonda started
out as home economists in the
Cooperative Extension Service,
but in different states —Rhonda in
Pennsylvania and Lynn in Ohio.
When she married, Lynn relocated
to Pennsylvania and shared an
office with Rhonda in the Erie
County Extension building. That
was the beginning of this “dynam
ic duo.”
The two worked well together
from the start and they talked about
the things they would like to do
someday. But little did they realize
what the future had in store for
them. They never dreamed they’d
be in business together.
But they didn’t actually get the
ball rolling themselves. Lynn and
Rhonda resigned from their jobs at
the extension office, thinking only
of spending more time at home
raising their expanding families.
After the two left extension
work, the local paper contacted
Rhonda about writing a column
and she, in turn, asked Lynn to co
Joe, Jodi and Jaime “hei
Family life Is a top priority for both Lynn and Rhonda. Here they spend time
entertaining their kids on the swing set. From left are Jodi Schember, Rhonda
Schember with her son, Joe, Jaime Schember, Kathy Clint, Jimmy Clint, Lynn
Clint and Mary Clint. 7
write it with her. Lynn knew she
would need some part-time work
to supplement their income, but
she never dreamed it would be
working for the paper.
After the opportunity for the
newspaper column, a local college
approached them about teaching
classes, and other extension
offices also offered teaching
opportunities. Now they are busier
than they ever imagined they
would be.
Lynn said getting ready for a
class these days is wild. “You nave
one (child) beating up on the other
one in the room, and another one
hanging on your leg, and a third
one getting over into your stuff that
you just packed and unpacking it.”
The kids are the “limiting fac
tor” on their activities now. Just to
get together to have their photos
taken for a newspaper article
“means six kids under the age of
three in another room while the
photographer’s trying to shoot
someting.”
But Lynn and Rhonda feel com
fortable with the careers they have
right now. They “bump into
things” rather than pursue them.
Nonetheless, they end up busier
without pursuing. They couldn’t
handle much more right now.
Probably the biggest project the
two have tackled so far is a show
L r
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’ Rhonda with an
for homemakers sponsored by
their newspaper. They gave micro
wave instruction.; on stage before
2,000 people.
They think that, for the next few
years, they can keep as busy as
they want by just being open to
those things they “bump into.”
Beyond that, the potential avenues
for more income would take more
work and more time. These two
feel comfortable just knowing the
potential is on the back burner.
They’re just not ready to move it
forward yet. Said Rhonda, “It just
isn’t important to have to do it right
now.”
Lynn added: “I guess I’ve gotten
selfish. I really hate to give up
more than one or two days a week
to work. I enjoy having that extra
time to be with the kids.”
Responsibility for three weekly
newspaper columns means that
Lynn and Rhonda don’t get vaca
tions anymore, not even when
they’re in the hospital having
babies. Lynn said, “It gets comic,
you know... Rhonda comes in with
her big tote bags and stuff and we
did a couple columns while I was
in there. And, after she had the
twins, I was in there totin’ in stuff
for her and she was writing a col
umn in bed.”
What do they dream of? Rhon
da’s goals would be to get a little
ent invent
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their talents to form a free-lance home economists
business. Their free-lance schedule permits them to
spend more time with their families than a full-time Job
- _ g» -ny
closet away from curious toddlers.
bit of a vacation and spend some
time on sewing and art, the things
she had to put aside. But one of the
advantages of being a home eco
nomist is that you can branch out in
so many different directions. They
would travel over a wider geogra
phical radius to work, “But,” Lynn
said, “right now we don’t want to
do that because that would defeat
the reason for us quilting our
jobs...Thcre are a lot of things that
we’ve thought of from time to
lime, that we could do and ways
we could publicize ourselves. But
we’ve opted not to do that because
we want to be at home here with
the family until the kids get older.”
Having families affects their
work style. They have spouses and
wmesfead
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children to consider and this large
ly controls what they choose to
pursue. Lynn said, “Right now,
we’re not career minded, we’re
family minded and., we’re not will
ing to let go of our careers totally,
so we’ re just kind of hanging on by
a string.”
They worked at their careers for
14 or 15 years and have only had a
few years to leave the fast pace
behind and take more time for fam
ily and parenting.
They believe their situation is
somewhat unique. “Some women
are just starlirig out and they need a
career for fulfillment. Well, we’ve
already had that. We’re more or
less working backwards. We’ve
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