Work at home moms are a growing part of the workforce in America and around the world. As more and more women need earn income, but also want to stay at home with their children, many have turned to work at home jobs. Like many other motherhood and career choices, making the decision to work from home is not always easy. Before you decide whether working from home is the right choice for you, there are several things to consider.
The most important consideration is whether being a WAHM is the right fit for you and your family. While working from home has many benefits, there are also a few drawbacks. Being able to be home with your children all day,not having to pay for childcare, setting your own hours, and not having to commute are all great. However, setting your own hours and working with children at home means that you must become an expert ant scheduling and balancing work and family time to succeed. It also means that you may get lonely if you are home all day without much adult interaction, and you could have to set boundaries with others who do not respect your working hours since they take place at home.
Before deciding to work from home, you need to honestly examine yourself to see if you are self-motivated and able to follow a schedule and balance the demands of working, childcare, and household duties all at the same time. If not, will you be able to learn and develop these qualities, or are you more suited to working in an office or other environment with close supervision?
Most work at home moms either work as independent contractors, working for a company but in charge of their own productivity and schedules, or for themselves, in charge of everything. Either way, you will need to set and stick to a schedule, meet deadlines, and complete your work without relying on a supervisor for motivation or accountability. These is even more important for freelance jobs, where you are responsible for getting clients and maintaining a working relationship with them as well as actually doing the work. If you are not self-motivated, then it will be hard to be successful as a WAHM.
In addition to motivation, you will need to manage time well. With work to get done plus household chores to complete, time management skills are very important. Without being able to set and follow a schedule, you will either end up overwhelmed by work or by chores and will fall behind on one or both. Good time management skills will save you from that trap and will enable you to get your work done on time and keep your house in order.
If you are both self-motivated and good at time management, then you may be able to succeed at a work at home mom. You will need to figure out how many hours you will realistically be able to devote to working and research different work at home job opportunities to see what will be the best fit for your interests and schedule. Use the internet to research some of the work at home jobs out there and reach out to other work at home moms online through forums and message boards and you may just find your perfect fit.
