Four Ways for Work at Home Moms to Get Their Work Done and Keep Their Sanity Too
One of the biggest challenges faced by work at home Moms is finding the time to complete tasks. Demanding toddlers, busy preschoolers, and elementary-schoolers with multiple after-school activities require lots of attention. It can be difficult to find the time to work and still meet all of the needs of one’s children.Stay at home Moms choose to work at home for two major reasons: they need an income (or a second household income), and they want to be there for their children. Putting a child in full-time daycare may not be financially feasible or justifiable in a WAHM (work at home Moms) situation. Some simply prefer to be their child’s primary caregiver.Whatever your particular reasons, carving time out of your busy day to attend to your work at home job might seem impossible. It’s not. In fact, thousands of mothers do it every day. All you need are a few pointers:1) Work around your kids’ schedules and natural rhythms. Most children, even babies as young as six months old, have developed fairly predictable routines and habits. If you learn to plan around these schedules and natural rhythms, you’ll be able to use “down time” to its fullest.For instance, plan to work during your child’s daily naps. DON’T plan on trying to get anything done during your baby’s normal fussy time. This will only create frustration for your baby and stress for you.Some other ways to work around your kids: get up a little bit earlier than they do in the morning. Work in your pajamas until they awaken, then go about your usual morning routine. Stay up a little bit later and work after they go down for the night. One mother, a freelance writer, actually got up in the middle of the night and wrote from 1:00 to 3:00 a.m. several days a week.2) Enlist help. If you have a live-in partner, this shouldn’t be difficult. Ask your partner if you can have some quiet time each evening to work while he or she takes full charge of the children.Then, make sure you let your partner do it! Resist the temptation to jump up and “help” or correct, especially when the kids are going crazy. Learn to shut out everything but the task at hand. Go into another part of the house and close the door if you can. Temporarily separating yourself both physically and mentally is good for everyone: you, your partner and your kids too.If you’re a solo parent, try to find help in other ways. Make reciprocated play dates with your kids friends: ask their mother to take your kids for a couple of hours of play time. You can do the same for her on one of your non-work days.3) Let your house go. This one is especially hard for neat freaks. However, if you are used to vacuuming and cleaning your kids’ rooms every day, you’re passing over prime opportunities for tending to your job.Instead of vacuuming every day, resolve to cut back to two or three times a week. Instead of doing a thorough room tidying every day, simply scoop up toys and items on the floor and put them in a box or a closet. You can go through and sort them out on the weekend when you have more help at home and a more flexible schedule. No one’s going to complain that your rugs are a little bit dirtier, least of all your kids!4) Enroll young kids in classes or preschool. Even if you don’t like the idea of full-time daycare, you can get in a few good hours of work each week this way. Your kids are still home with you for the majority of the week.However, for a few hours they will be able to have interaction with peers and other caring adults. This isn’t just convenient for you; it helps your child develop important social skills and to learn to be apart from you temporarily.It’s not always easy being a work at home Mom. It IS rewarding, though. Mothers are able to be available to their kids during their most formative years. At the same time, they are able to do something just for themselves that is positive and beneficial to the whole family.
