How to Handle Being a Work at Home Mom

Children are the main reason for Work at Home Moms wanting to work from their home.  They want to be able to spend time with their children and watch their children grow up; childhood goes fairly quickly!  While some mothers have it under control and can compartmentalize their motherhood duties with their work duties, some parents just can't.  Some parents have a horrible time keeping their children busy while they try to get work done.  There are parents who swear it isn't possible to work without interruptions, but it is.  There are different strategies you learn, as a work at home mom, how to have a stress free and interruption free work day.  It is possible - there is hope!

Working from home and parenting are both two very large full time jobs.  We don't get paid for parenting our little ones, but we love to do it just as well.  However it can even be more challenging than a full time job for many reasons.  While working from home and parenting at the same time, it's important to come up with creative ways to get work done.  

• Include your children in your work!

If you work creatively such as novel/article writing, blogging, artistic design, making jewelry or so on... try to include your children in your work.  If you're a writer or a blogger set aside 10 minutes of your time to write with your children. You can tell them that to take 10 minutes to brainstorm for a story.  The next day you may ask them to outline characters and so on...  Include your children in what you do and maybe have them write a short story just as you do.  (Of course, this works for older children.)  For younger children you can set them down with crayons and paper and ask them to draw a picture for your story.  If you design jewelry, set them down with some pony beads and a shoe lace; ask them to make a necklace or bracelet.  There are many creative ways to include your children in your work so that you can be productive and they can keep busy.

• Work during nap-time.

If you're a mother of a newborn or a younger aged child, this may be ideal.  Newborns sleep approximately 16 hours per day.  Granted, they are spread out naps, but during those 2-3 hour stretches you can get a lot done.  Sit down and work for those consecutive 2-3 hours undisturbed and just get as much as you can done!  For many moms, nap-time is their favorite time of the day.  It's the only time they can take time for themselves and actually be productive in housework or business related work!

• Ask for help.

Many moms are ashamed to ask for help, but sometimes you have to!  If you have a friend or a neighbor with the same age bracket of children, see if you can arrange a play date so you can get some work done. Alternate every other day or week and arrange a play date at your home as well, give the other mom a break!  Play dates are important to socialize your children and to keep sanity in both parents alive!  If you do not have friends with the same aged children, occasionally ask grandparents or family-friends to help out while you work.  This will change it up for the children as well as giving you some time to do what you have to do.

• Rotate toys or movies.

When kids play with the same toys or watch the same movies over and over again, they tend to get tired and antsy.  It's important to store some toys in a basement, attic or closet so that you can rotate the toys when you can tell the child is getting tired of them.  Switch it up and take some new toys out while putting some of the older toys into the closet, attic or basement.  This will keep them busy and allow for time for yourself to work!  One of the things I've always liked to do was designate one box as the "Digging Box".  (My mom did this for me when I was a child as well.)  With our "Digging Box" I threw some smaller toys from when I was a child in there, some toys from when my daughters were little, some small toys that may have lost their pairs from another set and so on.  Let the kids take a look through that box and see what they can find that may interest them!  I, as a child, used to love this concept and my children do too!  They can really use their imaginations with the contents of our box and it keeps them busy for quite a while.  

Being a work at home mom will really differ from actually working an on-site job or from single friends who work at home.  These are some important things to consider.

• It will be difficult to concentrate for long stretches of time on one task.  You may not get an entire article or chapter hammered out unless you're amazing at multitasking.  If you're a designer, you may not get an entire design done in one sitting.  It will probably take a little longer for a work at home mom to get a project or article/story done because of the short length of time you will have to work on that individual project.  Don't worry...It's not the length of time in which you get it done -- it's quality.

• If you're one of the lucky moms who have that 3-4 hour time period to work uninterrupted, do not do it all without small breaks.  Even 1-3 minute breaks to get up, walk around, stretch your muscles, etc...  It's better for you, your posture, your body and your health!

• Creativity might be sparse -- if so, go play with your children for a little while.  Sometimes children and their imagination or their creativity may spark something in your head.  Don't be discouraged with writers or creativity block, take advantage of that time to get the creative juices flowing again. (Everyone finds inspiration in different ways, do what's best for you!)

• Your time is more valuable than someone who works on-site or who doesn't have children.  Remember to price yourself accurately so you do not cheat yourself out of the time you took away from your children to do that project.  (We will write an article on this later this week!)

How do YOU juggle working from home and parenting at the same time?  Leave some tips in our comments for other work at home moms to think about!