I’ve been a work-from-home mom for a couple of years now, but in early June I began transitioning my focus a bit. I used to, primarily, teach online. I did so early in the morning or late at night when my kids were sleeping and/or my husband was home. Recently, I decided to start offering my writing, editing, proofreading, and curriculum/program development services online. This shift has resulted in A LOT more day-time work for me.
Honestly, I am super pumped and so excited about the work. I promise I am not complaining.
When I made the decision to begin dipping my toes into this market, it was early June. In those early days, I remember sitting at our breakfast bar, next to my husband (who occasionally works from home, as well) thinking, “Look at us, this is so cool. I can do this. I love this.” Flash forward three short weeks and my kids were home for summer break.
Legit, all hell broke loose.
We crashed into summer break like a freaking wrecking ball. A wrecking ball covered in vomit. All over my house. Yep, somehow, both of my kids ended up with the deadliest of all stomach bugs. This was no 24-hour bug. NO. This lasted almost a week for each kid. We followed that up by taking the show on the road for 2 weeks- visiting family in NJ. Upon our return, my oldest son’s allergies were so out of control that he was prescribed two sets of eye drops, a chewable allergy med, and referred for allergy testing.
Needless to say, summer, so far, has been a roller coaster (the rickety old wooden kind, to be exact). Like, I’m not sure we’re going to make it out alive. And that’s all before throwing in my attempts to get a new business off the ground.
Working from home while children are home with you is a unique balance of freedom and constant anxiety. I’m very lucky that my very first subcontracting position is with another mom who told me in our first meeting that she doesn’t mind if my kids are around.
She sure got what she bargained for a few weeks ago. On a video call with her, I got called into the bathroom TWICE to help with butt wiping. On a third-occasion- my youngest son went to the bathroom with the door wide open in full view of the camera.
God bless all other freelancing work-from-home moms who GET IT.
Also a few weeks ago, on a video call with my business coach, my children decided that would be the one hour that they would be the absolute worst versions of themselves. They fought with each other, spilled multiple food and beverages, cried, screamed, tried to carry on complete conversations with me while I was clearly speaking to my coach, and stripped to their underwear. It was a complete and utter shit show. I got off the call feeling so guilty for having wasted her time and not being 100% present to her valuable coaching.
This is working from home with kids.
Based on how awful they behaved while I was meeting with my coach and out of pure fear that they would put on a repeat performance, I decided to hire a babysitter to play with them while I had a discovery call with a potential client the next day. And guess what… I bet you already guessed it… the potential client no-showed (technically, she canceled 7 minutes before our meeting, but really, same.)
I learned my lesson, I will never do that again.
I feel like you have a pretty clear picture, by now, of how my work-from-home summer saga is going. The bright side is, that it’s going. I’m getting things done, finding new clients, and prepping to fully launch my new business (once the psychos are back in school and crazy town settles a bit.)
I even have a couple of tips to share about how I’ve managed to balance the freedom with the frantic as a work-from-home freelancing mom.
Observe your kids’ schedules and seize on the times where you can get larger chunks of work done.
For me, this is early morning and right around dinner time. I typically wake before my kids and can begin working. Even once they wake up, they are usually pretty mellow for a while. They like watching a couple of cartoons (TBH, sometimes Youtube, too) while eating breakfast and getting a slow start. This is when I get my biggest chunk of uninterrupted work and I can usually tell from the voice level in the living room when it is close to coming to an end.
The other large chunk of time I typically get for work is in the late afternoon after we return home from swimming. The kids are usually pooped and looking to veg out for a bit. My husband returns home from work during this time. He will take the kids bike-riding while I wrap up what I’m doing and get dinner started.
Dangle a carrot for good behavior.
Most days I have something fun planned for us to do late morning/early afternoon (even if it is just swimming at the town pool.) I make sure that it is something they want to do, I let them know what it is when they wake up, and I make sure they know we are only doing it if they behave while I work.
So, basically, I bribe them. I’m okay with that and, most of the time, it works.
Always lead your calls and meetings with a warning that your kids are around.
In my experience, when forewarned, most are completely understanding and even relieved themselves (if they also have kids home with them.) In some cases, it’s even lead to bonding and clinching the deal. I was initially apprehensive about this, feeling it didn’t give the professional image I wanted to. But, TBH, it is my reality and not pretending to be something I’m not has greatly lowered my anxiety level.