Children add a whole new element to a family. And with each additional child the family unit changes even more. Some working women want to start to work from home so that her children are not sent to daycare while she goes to a job that takes her away from her children growing up. Can the family make it without her income? And the struggle begins.
One option for Mom to work from home would be earning money online, either selling products or digital information, on a website, an auction site, a blog. There are many workable options for those that want to work from home. It can be done if a Mom sets her mind to it but there will be some challenges.
Workable Disadvantages That Have To Be Looked At From Both Sides
- Laundry, dishes, and vacuuming are in plain sight. Every time you get up from your desk, you see the household chores that need to be done. Accept that if you were working outside of the home that you wouldn’t even see them, forget think about doing them. For those Moms who struggle with looking at a full sink of dishes or laundry baskets full of dirty clothes, then do yourself a favor and set aside a specific time every day to just take care of it. Spend ten minutes or an hour, whatever it takes, to get those things off of your to do list. Otherwise it will wear on you. And as your children get older, teach them to do chores as a way to help Mommy.
- Interruptions can run rampant. The phone rings, packages arrive at the door, children play loudly, your spouse needs to talk to you, neighborhood children want to play with your children and their video games, your daughter can’t drive herself to hockey practice, and, well, everybody is wondering what Mom is making for dinner. Anyone that works from home has to be adaptable. Learn to laugh when it gets extra crazy.
- Actual hours available to work might be when the rest of the world is sleeping. Just because everyone in the house is lying in bed at 4:00 am doesn’t mean that it’s when you should be sleeping. Instead, you might have to put in some time in the wee hours. That might be the only way to have the quiet that you need to work from home.
- Children get sick. They want you to be with them, hold them, and comfort them which can be inconvenient for a Mom trying to work but you can do it. For Moms who work from home, you are already there when they get sick, instead of receiving a phone call at your job from the daycare center declaring a fever so the child needs to go home immediately.
Above are just some of the more obvious challenges. It is an adjustment to work from home. Some of the obstacles you might run into won’t even appear until after you have taken the plunge and begun your work from home journey. Each person has different experiences and circumstances so the options for each Mom debating this are unique. Evaluate why to work from home and for how long. Obviously, life circumstances and financial concerns can change the best laid out plan. The types of work from home opportunities to research will be directly related to the family’s short and long term goals. So take the time to determine what you are trying to accomplish.
Find something you love to do, investigate the work at home opportunities, and then consciously decide what is best for your family. If you are currently working outside the home but are striving to be on the other side of the front door, then put some time and energy into figuring out how you could make it work for your family. It is doable.
