Work at Home Parents – This is success?
Enjoy a little bit of humor.
By Krista Clyburn
January 10, 2009
My life is a scale that is consistently unbalanced and I find it very difficult some days. Take a look into the typical day in the life of a work at home mom with four children.
Drag yourself out of bed. Say a prayer you make it through another day. Yay! Another day!
Kids screaming, brushing teeth, shoving down breakfast, yelling “I do not have this, I do not have that”, five minutes before they need to reach their bus stops. I frantically, run around grabbing what I can to help these totally unorganized aliens, oh sorry, children, get out the door in time because I really do not want to have to drive them in. There is a perfectly good way of transportation awaiting them.
Ah kids off to school. That morning project is finished in somewhat of a calm state. Now, the younger set that is still at home. After changing diapers, clothes, and getting breakfast, business needs to be taken care of. Ok, the baby of our house is set. He has had a morning dose of love, hugs, kisses, food, clean clothes, face washed, and now I pray I can get to provide my family with the extra income we need.
Emails. Wow, when you’re doing everything yourself you walk into an email program with at least 50 to 100 emails a day waiting for your responses or wasting your time with ads. Better yet a whole network or group is fighting back and forth over the stupidest of topics and they just think you have the time to jump in and fool around. Get real! All the responses done, an hour gone easily.
Take a break, play with your child, read stories, play a game, get a snack or drinks, more hugs and love.
Back to the work board. Now, take care of the details of your business, some have it easier than others but again when your working at home alone there is a mountain that can easily be built of “fall behind projects” and details that need to be taken care of. Another hour or two, gone.
Shoot the phone is ringing and it’s my Mother in Law. Love her dearly but know, if I pick up that phone another hour will be gone. Better get it in case there is something urgent. Bye, bye hour!
Go back to your child, more love, hugs, kisses, play time, cleanup, lunch, and whatever else you can cram in.
Clean? Oh my, the house is a mess, better run the vacuum, pick up the toys, clean the bathroom, the kitchen, the dishes, laundry etc…. Better get this all done because the parent at home feels so guilty that they are home in the first place. Even though running a business, taking care of children, the house better be neat for the other parent to come home too. Wow, the dust in that corner is big enough to make a small bird’s nest. What’s one more mouth to feed? It gets hidden by moving the couch and inch over for now. Two more hours gone.
Jump back to business, take care of bills, ordering, more emails! ARGHHHH the never ending emails!! Doesn’t anyone have a life anymore? Why are they all on their computers! Oh yea, the same reason I am. Sigh…..
Guess what? Another hour gone and the older ones are walking in the door. But where has the day gone, why do I feel I didn’t get anything accomplished? OMG, they want snacks, they need this and that at the Walmart for projects that are due tomorrow!! I turn on super mode. ARGHHH, the baby needs changing and more hugs, got to get to the grocery store, have to buy little Billy down the street a birthday gift, have to make dinner, get more laundry done, feed the dogs, the fish ( they can go a day without food) there is enough in the bottom of the tank from when the baby dumped the whole canister in! Two minutes saved! Yay!
The constant phone calls, the neighbor that wants you to watch their kids because you are home and NOT busy! Ha! Ya, I sit and eat bon bons all day and watch mushy soap operas. I wish I had a soap opera life. At least they have maids and run around in gorgeous clothing with their hair perfect. Hmm wonder if they would like my look? Hair thrown in a ponytail, sweats and t-shirts with stains from the baby or the dogs that decided they were so happy to see you they jumped all over you, covering you in their loving way with dirty paw prints! Ya, sign me up for the next model for Young and the Restless!
Ok, business is calling. I need to figure out twenty ways to advertise my whole network for free! Searching in all the places I have not searched. Came up with one! Good job! The network doesn’t agree. What do they know?
Kids are fighting in the background over who gets to play which game. Then they fight over the last pudding left! What next? The house is a mess again with all these kids running through and throwing their gear everywhere. Time for family management. In a huff, I start dishing out chores and orders only to get strange looks back. Have I lost my mind that I want them to help me out? Oh yes, aliens, they don’t have messy houses or Mothers that look like they might fly off the deep end at any minute. Right, I am the one in a tizzy and no one seems to get it. Baby needs changing again, dinner needs to be cooked, house needs to be cleaned up again and the never ending laundry just grew instead of going down. What is up with that anyhow?
Someone ordered a product, get into my shippers mode. Package it up after finding the packaging tape in the baby’s toy box. A half hour spent looking for that sucker. Get on USPS, print my labels, adhered, and set by the door for shipping, schedule the shipment, good to go!
Dinner still needs to be made!
More emails, guess what? They lost my whole website! Working on it for weeks and they can’t get the files up on the web. Nice! Is it a full moon? They are working on it. I am trying to be patient but in my mind, know that I am losing money every day it is not up and ready to go! People complaining that they are not getting enough business to their business. Ok, note, find fifty more ways to promote the site! Find more businesses to get involved in to make more money so you may offer others pay. Wow! I wonder if they will offer me pay from their businesses when they are successful. It would be nice wouldn’t it?
Argh, I have to write new guides to direct everyone on how to do everything in their business. I need to write guides for leadership teams. I need to write articles so people have FREE content to give out on their websites as a courtesy from my site and my passion of helping others.
Shoot! Dinner still needs to be made! Now husband calls! How was your day dear, he asks. In the calmest voice imaginable I say, just fine. Nothing I couldn’t handle. Do you think he believed the lie? Do I believe the lie?
50 more invites to networks that I just cannot handle. What’s this? Join the love your pet site? Ya, I love my pets but I don’t want to sit 15 hours a day and talk about them.
Dinner! The kids are complaining they are starving. They might drop over since they have not eaten since snack time. I am a horrible mother.
I go into the kitchen. Hmm nothing available to make quickly. Order pizza night! Love ordering out. Makes my life so much easier. Then the complaints start because the driver can’t find the house and they are over a half hour delivering our food. Darn them, don’t they know my kids have not eaten since three hours ago? The nerve!
Back to business, answer more emails; help more people, still searching for new and creative ideas to help my fellow work at home family. I get lost in my thoughts of a sunny beach, refreshing alcoholic drink in hand, and the ocean waves rocking back and forth slowly. Ahhhh, how wonderful that sounds. Then the baby pulls on my shirt, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Austin hit me. Wake up, back to reality!
Is it bedtime yet? I don’t care if it is the kid’s or mine. Someone needs to go to bed!
Baby is screaming, he fell while climbing to get fruit snacks! I jump up and go running worried I will find a head spewing blood all over. Thank goodness he is fine. More love, hugs, comforting.
Hubby will be home any minute! The house is a mess; the kids still don’t have their pizza. Did I eat today? Oh yes, I ate the crust off the baby’s sandwich!
Dogs are barking they want to come in. Hubby is home and is hungry, the laundry needs changing over, the emails are piling up, the kids need clothes for tomorrow, they need help with their homework, does it ever end?
My mother calls and says, “We never see you!” That is because I don’t want to see anyone anymore after days like this, is what is on my mind. Instead, I apologize and try to explain but there is no sense in it. They don’t get it.
Kids fed, baby changed, bathed, and pj’s are on. Time to relax? HA HA HA HA, no, time to start on business again. Then the hubby comes over and wants some attention. Get in line buddy! Passionate kisses? What are those? The closest I get to them now is a big sloppy kiss from my little one after eating a bowl of ice cream. Time alone, dear? What time? Sure, you have two minutes. Sorry, your time is up!
Fighting starts up a again and I need to get things posted on my site. I do not have time to be a referee! Bedtime! Go to bed every one of you! I love you but enough for one day! Kisses given out, goodnights given and I collapse in my computer chair. Now I can get work done!
It’s now 1:30 am……I can’t hold my head up any longer. Good night to my world. See you tomorrow when I get to have this successful life start all over again!
I lay my head down, smile; I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I am queen of my domain.
This article was written with much sarcasim and a smile on my face. All material is the sole property of Krista Clyburn owner and founder of
www.wahmaddicts.comhttp://wahmaddictssocial.ning.comwww.wabizbox.comwww.onceuponadiapercake.comand various top 100 and message board sites.
Permission to reprint is granted as long as all links are kept in tact, clickable and the content remains the same.
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