3 Lessons Being a Work From Home Mom Taught Me

Being a work from home mom is not an easy task. This past year, I took a leave of absence from my teaching job to stay home with my daughter and newborn. Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE my kids so much, and I am so thankful everyday that I get to be a mother. However…adding the stress of making money from home was what led me to burnout. If you are a work from home stay at home mom already, or maybe you are hoping to become one…I want to share the three lessons that I learned this past year that might help you, too.

Lesson #1 – Stay at home mom guilt is a real thing!!

I used to dream about the day that I could leave my teaching job and become a stay at home mom. The mom guilt I felt everyday as I drug my daughter to daycare put me over the edge somedays.

However, I learned very quickly that being a work from home mom also brings its own fair share of mom guilt. It was so nice to have a slower change of pace. But in order for me to get solid work blocks in, I had to wait until my son went down for a nap. This gave me a pretty good chunk of time to catch up on most days, but then my daughter wasn’t getting any one-on-one time with me. During the winter months, she spent a lot of time watching TV or on her iPad, and that really bothered me.

I started trying to spend a little time with her at the beginning of my son’s nap. This helped, but I started falling more and more behind with my work. It was a really hard cycle for me to work through mentally. I knew I was doing very important work by being a mother, but I HAD to make a certain amount of money each month in order for this to work. I still don’t have the perfect answer for how to combat this. All I can say is that you HAVE to give yourself grace.

Lesson #2 – stay at home mom burnout

If you have worked outside the home in any capacity, being a work from home mom can pose a really big transition. I KNOW for a fact that I would have been stretched VERY thin balancing two kids in daycare with a 45 minute commute. So most days, I was really glad I didn’t have to make it to work on time in the mornings. Truthfully, there were also days that I really missed having a routine, getting out of the house, and having conversations with adults. It was definitely a weird balance.

I think the added stress for me came from the fact that I knew I had to make money. My husband and I had decided that we could make it work for one year. It was almost like a trial period. He was so sweet and worked on Sundays so he could make up for my teaching income that we didn’t have anymore. This made me really sad to watch though. Working the extra hours was stressful for him on top of shift-work. I felt like we saw him just as much as we did when I was working full-time.

I would beat myself up, because I just didn’t feel like I was being very efficient in my teacher business. I began applying for part-time online jobs in the EdTech space, but I wasn’t very successful. A lot of them require 8 hour days, and I knew that I’d have to put my kids in daycare to make it work.

My mental health went through a lot of ups and downs.

Lesson #3 – routine is key!

This is easier said than done. If you are wanting to leave your 9-5 in exchange for being a work from home mom, my biggest piece of advice would be to create a FLEXIBLE routine…heavy on the flexible (*wink*wink).

I knew that I could dedicate a good 2-3 hours of work time during nap windows, so this is kind of what my routine looked like (when my baby was finally sleeping through the night at about 6 or 7 months).

• 6:00 am – Workout
• 7:00 am – Baby wakes + feed & play
• 8:00 am – Daughter wakes + breakfast/tidy the house
• 9:00 am – Shower & Get myself & daughter ready
• 10:00 am – Baby naps
• 10:00-1:00 – Work Window (give or take) I tried to fit in 30 min to an hour of one-on-one time with my daughter & we had lunch
• 1:00 – Baby wakes + feed & play
• 2:00 -4:00 – Catch up on housework
• 4:00 – Baby’s naps (sometimes I could fit in more work time)
• 5:00 – Start Dinner
• 6:00 – Husband home or headed to work
• 7:00 – Clean up dinner
• 8:00 – Put house to bed
• 9:00 – Bedtime Routine
• 10:00 – I’m in bed

The biggest thing was to make sure the house was in order before nap time.

The thing that helped me the most was focusing on ONE thing to accomplish in my business each day. If I could get that ONE thing done, I felt better mentally. I also want to mention that I definitely had opportunities to work at the beginning and end of my day, but I NEED sleep. I noticed I was not very patient with my kids and used baby’s nap time as my nap time if I wasn’t sleeping enough.

Here are a few additional tips for work from home moms.

stay at home mom vs. working mom

Ultimately, this year helped me realize that no matter how you shake it, being a mom is HARD WORK! It is so rewarding and the most important work, but whether you work from home, work outside the home, or just love on your babies at home….there are challenges that come.

If you are a mom, you have to just come to terms that whatever you choose to do will be what’s best for your family, and sometimes there are more than one good choice.

So as much as I loved being home with my babies this past year (seriously…the BEST memories), at this stage in my life…because I do have to contribute an income to our household…I have chosen to go back to teaching. My daughter will come to Kindergarten with me, and my son will go to a daycare that we love and trust.

I know there will still be challenges, but my hope is that I can separate home and work so I can be present in both places and keep my family time sacred without any added stress or distractions.