I’ve worked in a lot of different fields in my life, and not a single job I’ve ever had is as hard as being a work at home mom. So many of you WAHMs seem to be pulling it off really well. I have to ask, are you really as composed as you seem? More importantly, is your house ever clean?
I’ve worked as a bartender, bar manager, and waitress. Once, I had to do all three simultaneously and cook the food. That’s nothing compared to being a work at home mom. I’ve managed an art studio full of artists at each other’s throats all day long. That’s nothing compared to being a work at home mom. I worked in an office, which was a cake walk compared to being a work at home mom. I’ve been a nanny, which, was challenging for sure, but again, not compared to being a work at home mom. I’ve even owned and operated my own store, which incidentally was far easier than being a work at home mom, until I acquired a step-son and new baby daughter, and that position morphed into a parenting at the workplace position and that was basically impossible, which is why I’m now a work at home mom.
Even the rudest customer I’ve ever dealt with can’t compare to the intensity of a toddler throwing a temper tantrum while siblings bicker in the back ground. No customer has ever come to me stumbling with a potty chair filled of their own urine while I was wrapping up a project. No customer has ever walked up to me with poop on their hands looking for a hug.
I take that back, when I was a nurse’s aid in the Alzheimer’s unit of a nursing home, I was approached for a hug by a resident who had poop all over her hands. Still though, I wasn’t in the middle of proof reading an article on a deadline when it happened. So again, nothing compared to being a work at home mom.
No vendor has ever been as unavailable as a three year old locked in the bathroom pouting. While on the job, I’ve had to endure work place drama, but nothing nearly as heart wrenching as hearing your son explain how he is getting bullied at school just as you sat down to start working. Work at Home Moms work at home so that other women don’t get to raise their children. So, when our children want hugs or when our children need comforting or snacks or their nose blown or someone to wipe their butt, we have to stop what we’re doing and we have to take care of our children.
Therein lays the biggest challenge of being a WAHM.
We can never live up to our full potential in our professions as WAHMS because mothering takes precedence. Or at least, that’s the whole point of working from home, right?
I know many of this blog’s followers are work at home moms. We have Everything Birth reps as part of our community. I know there are other mommy bloggers following this blog. Some of you sell products; some of you do internet sales. Can we all come together now though and perhaps share some tips for successfully working at home?
Or, at the very least, can we all just admit that our houses aren’t clean?
I don’t work from home, I just raise my kids in it, and my house is still a disaster.
😉 Thanks for admitting.
I work part-time outside the home (1-2 days a week) and part-time inside the home as well. My house is trashed. The only time it isnt is when I know Im expecting company, and even then, I only clean the things I think will make said company think “ewww, gross…they live like this?” Ive even found myself avoiding company so I dont have to put “clean house” back on my ever-growing to-do list. I’ve found I can either yell and bicker at everyone all the time, festering in resentment because I ultimately do more cleaning/straightening than everyone else (and its usually everyone elses crap Im picking up), or I can just let it go and remember that this too shall pass. Every now and then I try to make cleaning fun (as if). I’ll get the whole family involved and it seems to help motivate everyone. Or I’ll offer to help my son clean his room, and he always seems to find some “lost” toy, so I offer that as incentive. But believe me, those days are few and far between. I don’t know a mom out there who has a clean house all the time, and if she did, I’d have to seriously wonder how much quality time she carves out to wipe butts, kiss boo-boo’s, play games, read stories, take trips to the park, and make healthy meals. Besides, its like they say…we’ll miss those messes when they’ve gone to live on their own. My mom reminds me of that when I visit her clean, uncluttered house. 🙂
I’ll miss the kids, but not the mess! hahaha
I work from home one day a week and very little work gets done except during naptime. The only reason the house gets clean is because my husband can’t function unless it is, so when he gets home he cleans up what I missed. Or I enlist the help of teenagers on chore day and they get it clean.
I love this, thank you….from a work from home Mom who thought I was just thinking my job was tough!
Oh, I do not work from home! I…paint at home! I am completely in love with what I am doing and it’s worse, believe me! I am the “mess creator”!!! But hey, I am the one cleaning too, so I guess that we do have a balance in our life…somewhere, somehow. My house is…pretty! I am not going to add more on the subject! Who cares? Houses are for self expression, not for good impression!
Yup! House is a mess…I’m a work at home mom to 2 kids..the “3rd” one arrives in the evening from a long day’s work – my husband 😀 ..yes, I take care of all of them while working, planning, creating, researching, blogging, linking, and commenting on blog posts like this 😀 Enjoy your WAHM journey !