The Stress of Being a Work From Home Mom
Being a WAHM (work at home mom) often sounds like the perfect option for those wanting to spend more time with their family and still bring in an income. With the rise in studies showing that attachment parenting is beneficial to both parents and children, more and more mothers and fathers are turning to work from home jobs in order to stay with their children longer.
The truth about being a WAHM or WAHD is often a little different than the fantasy. Depending on your stress level, your job, and your personal work preference working from home can prove to be incredibly difficult. As a writer who works from home, with three children under 5, in the beginning of my journey I found myself extremely stressed out. I began to wonder why I left my job as a teacher and I even doubted my own deep-rooted beliefs about what is right for my children.
For me, I discovered that I truly needed to learn to manage time more wisely. I was now in charge of my own schedule and my own finances, something that hadn't been the case at any other time in my life. I determined how much money I made every week and how many hours I worked. I figured out that I was going to have to set a schedule and stick with it the best I could. I choose hours to work that tend to be downtime for my family and I always reserve a little of that down time for myself. I found that stretching my work hours out over the entire week worked better for me, I was more capable of working through little snippets of time each day than trying to send down for 8 hours straight. I also enlisted the help of my husband and several relaxation techniques.
It is important to keep in mind that work from home is still work, it is also important to plan work out in a way that will keep your sanity intact and not to lose sight of why you left your corporate job to begin with.