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There is a lot of information surrounding being a Mum who works from home, and not all of it is clear. You’ve spent time at home with your new baby, helping them settle into life outside of the womb and you made sure you had months off with her. The time is looming ahead to think about going back to work again, but there is rarely a new mother who wants to leave her baby and head back to the workforce so soon. The solution that most mums think about is working from home. The problem is that this world is just as confusing as any other!
There are plenty of websites promising work to the stay-at-home parent, but the problem with those is that most of them are littered with work-at-home scams, and it’s the last thing that you should have to deal with. It may have even crossed your mind what you should do with your baby when you work from home. Some of the questions filling your mind right now may include:
The very first thing that you should be considering when you consider working from home – before you start looking into a secured business loan for your new venture – is deciding what YOU want. You have to look at your family dynamic and determine if you can commit to working around your life. Your new job will likely take the evenings and early mornings that you would usually use for time for yourself. Working from home also means fewer breaks, less time with the kids, and less time with your spouse. Every waking moment, you will be busy. There will be chores to do, a baby to watch, a job to do, social life and marriage to fit in. It doesn’t ever really seem to end, and it’s the choice you make when you choose to work from home when you’re a parent.
On top of all of this, you have to decide whether your personality can handle the pressure of working in the environment in which you live. We’re not trying to put you off the idea: working from home is a fantastic decision to make for you and your family. However, it’s still a life-changing decision that you have to make, and it will be important for you to make that choice with your eyes wide open to all it will entail. We’re going to discuss what being a stay-at-home means, including some things that you should consider before you get started.
Before becoming a parent, you may have had a long and fruitful career outside the home. However, now that you’re a mother, there is a chance that you won’t want to – or be able to – work at that same level as you did before. This is not a bad thing: motherhood is a transformation, and your career may transform along with it. You have a few choices here, too. You could choose to keep the same profession that you had before and adapt it to work for you as a freelancer from home. You can also look into an entirely new job working from home and start again in something else. Some of the career paths that could be open to you as a stay-at-home mother include:
All of these options are viable ones, and whether you are on pause for your career while you’ve had a new baby, or you’re a stay-at-home mum looking for a fresh start, the best thing to start with is your resume. Your current job from which you are on leave from may be more than happy to change your hours, your schedule and even your work location if it means keeping you employed with them. The best thing here is to talk to your employer and get some answers. Network with your coworkers and find out if they know of any roles within the same company that will allow you to work from home.
Sometimes, your skills may not match a job that works from home, and your current employer may tell you that it’s not ideal for them. It’s entirely possible that this can happen, so you need to think about branching out on your own. Opting for a new career sounds daunting and scary, especially when you’re a new mother and already in the thick of learning new things. Keep in mind that you may have to get your skills down pat before you can independently work at home.
You’ve had a baby, so it’s not just the practical side of your finances that you need to think about. The problem is the emotional side. There is nothing wrong with wanting to go back to work after you’ve had a baby, but a lot of mothers dislike the fact that this decision is out of their hands and they HAVE to work. It’s so much nicer when working from home with children around is a choice because you want to, rather than something you must do for financial reasons. You want to set priorities as a family, and to do this, you must understand your own reasons to work from home. Some of the things that you may consider include:
This list isn’t too exhaustive, but it does need to go hand in hand with why you want to work from home, and some of those reasons may include things like stress reduction and saving money on childcare, eliminating your commute and knowing you can see your baby whenever you want.
You’ve explored your emotional reasons for going back to work, but it’s now down to the bit that matters most: the practical side. A lot of mothers who decide to work from home don’t exactly start out with a job they can immediately earn money from. Working from home is something to be built over time rather than something to jump straight into and use. You may, for example, need to think about your finances first. Perhaps your idea to work from home requires you to buy equipment or materials. Maybe you need a cash injection in order to set up your office.
You should start small and take baby steps toward this, possibly working part-time first so that you can slowly build yourself into a position where you are earning a full-time income without having to increase your hours too much. You need to see what works for you personally as well as what will work for your employer. Building a business from scratch will also take some time, and that’s not always easy to navigate when you have a specific idea in mind. When it comes to practicalities, you need to take your time and consider the following:
Working from home may not seem like an easy solution at first, particularly when you are first separating yourself from your baby. However, just as with anything else, all you need is to want it enough and you will be able to have the freedom to work at home and make it work for your whole family – and your future.
This is a collaborative post.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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