Kay's Entrepreneurial Detours
Are We Having Fun YetThis flow follows Kay Willis through improvised businesses that gradually reveal her most satisfying work.
increasing
Bearing strength in each event
decreasing
Catering Entrance

Reentering Paid Work
Kay Willis accepts a luncheon supervision job near United Nations Plaza to supplement family income.
Unexpected Skill
Her homemade desserts attract attention despite her limited formal culinary background.
New Possibility
The job shows that domestic competence can become marketable expertise.
Bag Lady Career

Labor on the Bus
Kay Willis carries prepared food through New York City in plastic shopping bags.
Comic Recognition
Her daughter celebrates the career while Kay jokes that she has found herself as a bag lady.
Hidden Cost
Success begins interfering with the family life she values most.
Baking for Income

Craft Fair Enterprise
Kay Willis sells breads and cakes at Saturday fairs, baking through the week while managing a large household.
Immediate Reward
The products sell quickly and provide needed money.
Exhaustion
The enterprise exposes the cost of converting every enjoyable activity into another obligation.
Dried Flower Business

Searching for a Better Fit
Kay Willis creates dried flower arrangements to earn money from home.
Creative Satisfaction
The work is imaginative and initially eases financial anxiety.
Necessary Reassessment
Long nights in the basement reveal that income alone cannot justify the drain on family life.
The Parachute Idea

Discovering the Obvious Work
A career book encourages Kay Willis to identify what she does well and enjoys.
Recognition
She realizes that helping mothers is more natural and meaningful than her commercial ventures.
Vocational Turn
Mothers Matter emerges as the enterprise that unites experience, purpose, and pleasure.
when Danny Willis begins school
during the mid-1970s
after the catering work expands
after the baking venture
before Mothers Matter is founded