Work At Home Mums Unite

I started my photography business when I was pregnant with my daughter Eva, so I have been a work at home mum her entire life.  At the time my son was born I was a Newborn photographer, so my mum travelled up from Kent to watch him for me when he was just 3 weeks old so that I could photograph another sweet baby before he was too old.

Being a work at home mum, in my 5 years of experience, gives you the best and worst of both worlds.

It’s amazing to be in a position where I can spend so much of my time with the children, I feel so lucky to be able to do a lot of my work with them around – and I know how heart wrenching I would find it if I had to up and leave them during the week like Mummas who work outside the home have to.  I’ve loved and appreciated every minute of toddler groups, painting in the kitchen, singing and dancing around the house. We have all benefited so much from me being in the amazing position to be able to work with them around.

It’s always been important to me personally to teach my children the value and importance of working. And being a Work at Home Mum has given me the unique opportunity to indirectly teach this on a daily basis. My daughter is now 6, and has a good understanding of the fact that the time I have to spend in the study working during her holidays is what enables us to have girly trips to the theatre, new clothes & her dance lessons.

At the same time, all Stay At Home Mummas know that as totally rewarding as it is, looking after young children full time can be all consuming. Trying to add 16+ hours of work into a week of Stay at Home Mum-ing can be really tough. People often have the misconception that Mums who work from home don’t actually work at all, and so the network of help, support and encouragement for those amazing Mums who work outside the home, isn’t as always as forthcoming for us.

I also found when the children were young, I wasn’t able to tap into the Stay at Home Mum network very well either. I often couldn’t attend play dates or stay late after activities with the other mums, as I had to dash home to fit in a bit of paperwork or squeeze in a client during nap time. This meant that we all suffered socially, and although I made a few totally amazing Mummy friends who I would be completely lost without, we have never had the same social life that our Stay and Home Mummy & Kiddo friends had.

Like everything in life, it’s swings and roundabouts, pros and cons but my overall feeling is that I love my work – home life balance. I have my children, and I’m building a career that I adore. I’m passionate about promoting Work and Home Mum-ing and supporting incredible Mumpreneurs because I think, despite the challenges, it’s an incredible life.

Eva and Elijah are a bit older now so with school & pre-school in the mix I do have a little bit more time during the day to work, but there is still a huge network of us Mummas that get the kids to bed and then sit down to run our businesses. There are so many of us that throw the kids an iPad while we meet with clients, or take business calls while children climb up us whispering “Mummy” frantically in our ears a million times.

I think every Mum is totally amazing, whether you’re a Work at Home Mum like me, whether you work outside of the home, or whether you work raising your fabulous children, we are all just working hard to do the best for our children! I would absolutely love to hear your stories and experiences about working around your children, regardless of where it is you work and what it is you do! We are all in this together and it would be great to share!

If you are a Work at Home Mum, I’m going to blog about my experience of working at home with the kids here full time over the summer. After five and a half years, I finally felt like I was almost holding everything together!  How did you all get on?!

I really can’t wait to hear from you all!

Beth x