But as stay at moms (and dads!) finding a balance is crucial because you'll have to work from home. This means that the normal physical barriers that provide a forced separation between work and life are absent. The risk of imbalance then becomes greater.
Fortunately, if you'll put some rules in place, it will take the stress out of the process and lead to a much happier home for your kids and family. Following these simple rules will also make achieving work-life balance a very doable goal.
As a stay at home mom, the first thing you have to consider is what you want the "work" side of your life to look like. Let's face it, when the "life" side of life involves being responsible for raising children, there's already a lot of work involved.
The first question to ask yourself then is, do I want to add work, outside of raising children and all the responsibilities that comes with that, to the equation? In the beginning, many moms answer "no" to this question, happy to let their children and household responsibilities define work for them.
As the months, or even years, go on however, many moms have a longing to have something more, something of their own. As one mom put it, "I want to be more than the person that drives the kids to soccer every day."
Financial considerations, especially when raising active kids, also often make this decision for us, forcing us to pick up some paying work to give our kids the lifestyle we want them to have.
If this is you, and you long to (or need to!) have a work identity outside of "mom," then there are three "rules" of sort that will keep you, your family, and your work, happy and balanced.
1. Establish a Work Zone and a Schedule
You don't have to have an office to make working from home doable. But you do need some clearly defined boundaries. Your children should know that if mom's in this chair, or this corner, or at this space, she's working and isn't available.
In addition to this "forbidden zone" you need a schedule. You can't expect your kids to not need or want you anytime you wander into your work space. (Although there certainly is something appealing about being able to escape like that on some days, isn't there?!)
Your schedule doesn't have to be consistent every day or every week, but you should make up a weekly schedule and have it posted somewhere that your kids can see it.
2. Know Where Your "No" Line Is
The thing about most every kind of work is that it will take up as much space as you give it. So you'll need to establish a firm stopping point. This could be a number of hours a day or a week you'll work. And to anything that comes up after that, you say "no" to it, without hesitation or exception.
This may include not working after a certain time at night, not working on the weekends, or not allowing for interruptions during specific family times.
Even though you already have a schedule and a designated work zone, things will pop up when you are on your off hours. Knowing specifically when you'll say "no" to these things keeps you from being tempted to do "just one more thing" and keeps your family from being disappointed when you end up working during family time.
3. Incorporate Your Children Into Your Business
Your children will be happier, as will you, if they can be a part of this thing with you. As they get older, they can take on more and more responsibilities for you. They can do things that make them feel like they are helping of course, but you'll be surprised by how many things they can do that actually ARE a big help.
Talk to your kids about responsibilities they'd like to take on to help you out. When they're younger, they can start out cleaning your work space. They can work their way up to helping you with small office tasks, organizing, checking supplies, helping to keep your calendar, and even doing some customer service help as they get older.
This is a great way to teach your kids responsibility, to make them happy that you're working and not available to them 24/7, and to help you get more done. As an added bonus, you can even pay your kids, have them pay for some of their own expenses, and reap the benefits of having them as your salaried worker when it comes to tax time. Talk to your accountant about this one, it can really save you money.
There are thousands of work at home jobs available, but at kidspartycharacters.com, we've created the perfect one for you (in our humble opinion!). Cheryl Jones, founder of kidspartycharacters.com has recently decided to allow a limited number of people to license her business.
What does this mean for you? As a licensed member of kidspartycharacters.com, you get an exclusive territory to book appointments, the right to use all of the company's costumes, access to a casting director who will hire and train the character actors, and ongoing support from Cheryl and the entire team at kidspartycharacters.com.
You also get a six module training course to help get you started, and additional marketing support if you choose. Find all the details here, and schedule a chat with Cheryl to see if this might be the perfect work at home opportunity for you.
This is one business your kids would certainly love to be involved in, and it gives you the flexibility of working as many, or as few, hours as you choose. Read more about this fun and profitable opportunity on our website. We're excited to talk with you about the possibilities!
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