youngmompreneur

I was inspired to write about the work from home balance after reading  two posts, one at bookpublishing.today.com  and the other at sierraexotic.today.com.  Both posts talk about balancing working at home with being a stay at home mother.  I must admit that I have truly struggled with this.  Before becoming a work at home mother, I naively assumed that life would be a blissful day of completing writing assignments, and spending time with my son, and completing household chores.

Then reality set in. 

My son is 10 months old, so I try to work before he wakes up in the morning, which is rare, because I wake up usually upon hearing him cry to get out of his crib.  My most successful time to get work done is during his nap, which, on a good day, is two hours long.  Not exactly a lot of time to write.  But, I squeeze as much as I can within the time frame that his nap provides. 

After that, I squeeze in time to write while he plays in his playpen.  I have found that it is virtually impossible to get anything accomplished with him outside of his playpen.  When outside of his playpen he is usually caught trying to turn off mommy’s computer, getting into things that he shouldn’t, pulling on my clothes and eventually whining for attention.  He does good for about 30 minutes or so playing by himself, but then he’s ready for some different action.

 I’ve quickly realized that most work at home opportunities work well for stay at home moms who have school age children.  Trying to work with a toddler and an infant seems like a hopeless dream, if you don’t have a babysitter to watch them.  When working from home with small children, you basically have to have someone else watch the children at some point.  With alpineaccess and educateonline, you have to work in a noise free environment during your shift.  Which means I would have to find someone to babysit my kids while I’m working.  That’s not exactly what I’m looking for in an at home job.

For now, writing is the best work at home job for me during this season of my life.  I can write when I have the discipline enough to arise early, and throughout the day, whenever I carve out time.  I’m setting my schedule, and that’s what I need.  I would love to hear from work at home moms with small children, and know how they manage to balance working from home with caring for young children.

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