Work From Home Mom

Work from home mom. It’s not always glamorous and balancing both can sure be a struggle. That smile on my face isn’t always there. Would I have it any other way? NOPE!

People ask me how I do it all. Well, I actually can’t do it all. It’s impossible to be the best mom, best wife, and best entrepreneur all in one day. If you have it figured out.. oh please let me know!

I can be a really good mom and hardly get any work done one day. Then another day, I can be a really good entrepreneur but will encourage my kids more than I’d want to go play or watch on my phone so mommy can get something done. Looking at the photo above, I could have put a movie on for Mariah but instead I let her watch on my phone quick so I can finish responding to emails. Of course, she didn’t want to sit anywhere else except my lap so I’m responding to emails with Jojo Siwa music next to me.

At first I felt guilty about not playing with the kids 24/7. Then I was like you know what…not playing with them or watching them for awhile isn’t going to hurt anyone except the people with the “judgey eyes” thinking they know how you should raise your kids. Kids should be playing with their toys that they HAD to have, using their imagination, watching movies, and playing outside… right? I don’t understand why we feel guilty about this? Being a mom is hard and I feel like society has these unrealistic expectations of what we “need” to be. Can I just be me?! I’m over here trying to do the best I can keeping these kids alive, trying to raise nice humans, and smothering them with hugs and kisses because I can’t get enough of them.

Why are you a work from home mom?

There are moms who can be a stay at home mom and don’t need to work. You guys, I can’t. I can’t NOT work because we need two incomes to support our family. If I wasn’t my own boss and worked from home, I’d have to work 8-5 somewhere. That’s the reality of it. To be honest though, even if I was able to not have to work and dedicate all my time being a mom, I don’t think I’d want to. Is that horrible of me to say?! Don’t hate me! You guys, it’s hard being a stay at home mom. Like really freaking hard. It’s a 24/7 job with no breaks. It’s the hardest job that demands so much. Also I’ll say it, “I like to work.” I like to be able to have a creative outlet. I like to interact with adults. I want be able to travel more with either Niña, my husband, or the kids and me working allows us to travel more. I don’t want to feel bad if I want a drink from Starbucks or Smoothie King because we all know that stuff adds up!

Since Blaine knows I also work while I’m at home, he has been such a huge help. He actually works from home too. I love our team! In reality, he actually does more housework than me. He also does all of the morning duties since he is a morning person and I just am not. When school was still in session, he got the kids breakfast and to the bus stop. I woke up to give them hugs and kisses before the 3 kids leave, and then would fall back asleep until 8am. I then work in bed probably until around 9:30-10:00am when Blaine tickles me until I get out of bed. I’m not kidding you guys, this is almost a daily occurrence! LOL! Then when I’m up, I was on mom duty.

As I mentioned, Blaine works from home too. There’s a difference between Blaine working from home and me working from home. Since my work is more flexible, I feel like during the day Blaine has an invisible sign that says “Working. Do not disturb.” Now when it comes to me…I’m constantly being interrupted if I decide to work. Sometimes I do my work on my phone. When kids see me on my phone, it’s like I have a sign that says “Mommy isn’t busy. She’s just on her phone so feel free to interrupt her.” I think that’s the sucky thing about being able to work on your phone sometimes. People think you’re just either being lazy or not doing anything important because you’re on your phone, but they have no idea I’m just over here working like if someone was in their cubicle working on their computer. I just don’t have a designated space! I’m squeezing in a little bit of work while my kids are busy doing something. If you see someone out and they are on their phone, don’t judge them. That may be the 5 min. they haven’t been on their phone and need to either take a break from watching kids or is responding to an email quick since that’s the only time they’ve had all day.

Now that the kids are home for summer break, the schedule is a bit different. I actually feel like I have more responsibilities! Gosh, I thought this was called a break! 😉 Here’s an example of Thursday’s schedule:

Got up at 7:05am

7:20am Left the house with Dylan. Picked up Mariah from my sister’s house since she spent the night there.

7:45am Left Niña’s house and headed to the school.

8:00am Dropped Dylan off at basketball practice and headed home with Mariah.

8:30am Admin work; Checked & responded to email and messages

9:00am Took a shower.

9:20am Left with the 3 little kids with wet hair and headed to school to pick up Dylan.

9:40am Picked up Dylan from basketball practice and headed to swimming lessons.

10:00am Dropped off the 3 kids at swimming lessons. Dylan and I stayed in the vehicle while I had a work phone call.

10:35am Got done with my phone call and headed to the pool to watch the kids at swimming lessons for 10 min.

10:45am Kids were done and got dressed

11:00am Headed to an ice cream shop to celebrate their last day of their 2 week swimming lessons.

11:20am Headed back home.

12:00pm Had a phone call

12:15pm Talked to Blaine; Admin work; social media, email, & messages

12:45pm Preheat oven to heat food from last nigh’s dinner so the kids can have lunch. Figure out what content to post. Lunch with kids.

1:20pm Start writing a blog post. Get interrupted numerous times which results in not getting much done.

1:45pm Blaine and I went for a run/walk.

2:10pm Collapse since I’m so out of shape. More Blog/Collaboration work; social media.

2:45pm Laid my head down for a bit from being exhausted (mainly from driving kids around and the run/walk) and then ended up falling asleep.

3:15pm Woke up and wondered where I’m at. LOL! My computer was right next to my head.

3:30pm Put some makeup on so I don’t look like I just woke up. Take photos for a collab; Do IG stories for a collab.

There you have it… there’s my 8 hour day. It flew by. Actually every day flies by, and every day is different. There are times when Blaine is done working, and I tell him I need an hour or 2 to get some stuff done before dinner. Asking a “work from home mom” what they did all day is like asking a “stay at home mom” what they did all day. We really don’t know. We’re doing what needs to be done, but by the end of the day, we wonder if we even accomplished anything! I’ve never written down a timeline before like the one I did above. After breaking it down, I see that I actually accomplished quite a bit. I want to give myself a pat on the back! haha! As you can see, my day had a combo of work and being a mom which I love!

There are ups and downs with being a work from home mom. I know it’s not for everyone, but I personally wouldn’t have it any other way. Time management is something I’m constantly working on. In the fall, I hope to have more of a schedule since all 4 kids will be in school all day. I want to only work when they’re in school, and then when they’re home my phone and computers are turned off. 🙌🏽

Ps. If you see me on social media and I have makeup on and my hair done, below is what I typically look like. No makeup on, my hair in a top knot, in my pjs still, and then there’s my kids dressed like they came out of a catalog. 😂