If you are already a wahm, you will totally get this article, but it is really meant for those who are looking to become work at home moms. It isn’t all peaches and cream, and while there are plenty of benefits (which you probably already know), there are a few things that I feel you ought to keep in mind when making your big decision.
- People won’t believe that you are really working. This is probably the single most irritating thing about working out of your home. Everyone just assumes you are free and having a ball all the time! My in-laws still don’t believe that I am not sitting and playing computer games all day! There is not a lot you can do about this, except keep telling people that you are working and under a deadline, or ignore them.
- Kids don’t respect work hours. Especially very little kids, such as toddlers and babies! It can be a real challenge to try and work with a toddler scrambling onto your lap every five seconds, wanting you to read to him. I have to admit, I thought I had it all worked out, before I started to work from home. I wrote out a schedule, planning to work during my son’s morning nap, then my husband would be home around 1 pm and could look after our child while I kept going, taking a break to play and make supper and get our son into bed before working again without interruptions until around 10 pm.
That was the plan. Ha! The week that I started to work, my son decided he no longer needed morning naps! He was suddenly hanging off of me all the time and only content if I were to sit and read with him, all day long! Then, to make matters worse, my husband decided that looking after our son meant taking him out for a fifteen minute walk, then watching TV while my son tugged at my shirt and tried to bang my computer keys! Needless to say, not a lot of my work gets done during the day! Just be aware that kids can be difficult to work with. As they get older, you can teach them to let you work for increasingly longer periods of time.
- None of your pre-work plans will turn out. Please see the above section for more details!
- Working at home can be lonely. If you have no one but a preschooler to talk to throughout the day, you will no doubt find yourself getting bored and wishing you had someone else to talk to. Even if you are a loner like me, it can get tough. The best way to combat this is to make a point of getting out at least once a week, perhaps to a playgroup or just a coffee date with a friend.
- It’s virtually impossible to get everything done. Expect to take about a month to 6 weeks to get organized. It takes that long to figure out how to balance giving your family nutritious meals and clean clothes with finishing your projects before the deadline hits! For those first weeks, you will probably be going a little bit nuts, feeling that you just can’t do this, but don’t worry, you’ll work it out!
It can be tough to be a work at home mom, but just remember that the rewards of being there for your kids and watching them grow each day are well worth the hassle. Even when you have to clean spilled juice off your keyboard!
