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Time Management
Tips for Work at Home Moms
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Food
for Thought
I
have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine
marriage and a career.
Gloria
Steinem
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Time management
is probably my main issue as a work at home mom. When you
have a corporate job, your hours are set for you. Having
more flexibility in your schedule is great, but it also
makes it harder because there are many more decisions to
be made on how to manage your own time and how to balance
family time with work time. Listed below are some time managment
tips based on my experiences.
1. Transitioning
from a stay at home to work at home mom - If you have
been a stay at home mom, the adjustment to your family has
to make to your job may be more difficult for them than
it is for you. Your
spouse and kids may have a hard time realizing that you
have a real job now. If you don't manage this transition
carefully, you may just be adding a full time money making
job on top of being a full time homemaker. I think it is
easier for families to accept the fact that you have a "real
job" if you go into the office outside the home each
day and you are not available to take care of them 100%
of the time.
2. Having
kids adjust to mom not being around 100% of the time -
My children tend to complain that I spend too much time
on the computer when they are around, though they
never complain when their Dad has to work late at the office!
When they are on the computer it is usually to play games
and chat online with their friends, so my family has a hard
time mentally associating my PC time with real work,
even though that PC time spent in my Internet business is
helping to pay for expenses that benefit them like braces
and future college bills.
I used
to try to do my errands during the weekdays when many other
potential shoppers are at work and the stores were less
busy. Then I would work on my business in my home office
in the afternoons when the kids were home from school or
in the evenings when my husband was home and could watch
the kids.
Interestingly,
I found my family doesn't like it if I am home but not with
them. Yet they don't complain if they are home and I'm out
doing things like grocery shopping or going to the Post
Office. So I found it contributed more to family harmony
to work when my kids were in school and then do my errands
on weekends or evenings. If my kids have their homework
done after school then they can do errands with me and we
can also do a few things they like to do, such as getting
an ice cream or stopping at the hobby stores.
It is not the
most logical way to handle things for me since it would
go quicker to do errands when the stores were less busy,
but since it keeps everyone happier it is the way I've decided
to structure my day. When my kids are home and I am out
grocery shopping they understand the need to buy groceries
and are okay with that, but when I am home and locked away
in the office I think they feel ignored.
3. If you can
afford it, try to spend some of the extra money you make
on extra things for the family like a nice vacation or a
new TV. That way the kids can get to see some tangible
benefit of why you are working and may be more eager to
pitch in around the house to free up some of your time for
your job. I've always been very frugal, but we did indulge
in a few luxury items once I started to make a salary again.
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