Today’s Thursday so I’m Crafting my Life! This month, I’m hard at work on the Crafting my Life e-course. Registration opens this Saturday for people on my email list, so sign up at CraftingMyLife.com if you haven’t already! While I set that up, I’m shaking things up over here. December’s theme is “crafting your life”, in which I welcome guest contributors to share their journey with you. This week, it’s the amazing Danielle.
I am listening to my dear friend from my ‘Mommy and Me’ group talk about her meeting that day, which included a catered lunch. I remember from my corporate days it calling it a ‘working lunch’. My mind wanders to the days of getting dressed up, make-up freshly applied, and marching out the door to the land of adult conversations, budgets, and any other gossip that circulates the four walls that eat up a work day. My desk housed trinkets that motivated me during the times when the boss’s problems became my problems. When I stepped out of the office, the stress stayed at the office.
As she kept talking I thought of my work day now. After the breakfast dishes are cleared, I flip on a Wiggles DVD and tap away at my pink Netbook to make a noon deadline for a client back East. My face is clean from a stolen-moment shower. My hair drips onto my keyboard as I didn’t have time to blow dry it. My three-year-old appears to ask if she can do her paperwork beside me.
Trying to keep my train of thought, I pass her crayons and blank paper to keep her happy until I can finish the copy that I need to email. My youngest toddles up to me demanding to sit on my lap. I scoop her up and bounce her while typing with one hand.
My office dynamic has surely changed. When I was winding down my maternity leave from my first child, I fell ill so my leave was extended. As I recuperated, my employer went under. While I was pondering my next move, I got pregnant again. I discovered there is not an employer who will hire a pregnant mom with bad morning sickness. I became a permanent stay-at-home-mom.
As my darling second child grew beautiful and my eldest started pre-school, I wondered what I should do to bring home an income. Four people living on one income is tough. I never expected to be a mom when I was told I could not. It tore my soul at the thought of leaving them every day and missing their milestones.
I began exploring the world of self-employment. I quickly realized I could not make a product worth mass selling out there on my own. Also, I could not bake for my friend’s company who had offered me a job on weekends when my husband was home with the kids. During the late nights consoling my teething tot, I relied on my phone for entertainment, surfing social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
On a dare to myself, I began to answer the general call of websites asking for article submissions. They were published. Then, I was getting asked by newfound clients to write copy for their various projects. I also took an online writing class for fun and ended up getting published on the company’s site.
The validation of being creatively accepted while doing diaper duty gave me the confidence to keep going with freelance work. The pay is coming. Starting a new business that is me is exciting. It is not 9 to 5 job; the hours are all around the clock. It is flexible so I can travel with a wireless device to keep me plugged in. My catered lunch involves a drive-thru on the extreme days. If a wannabe freelancer mom saw my ‘glamorous’ job, she might think twice.
I am fortunate to work with and for amazing people, all the while being my daughters’ full-time mom.
Danielle is a work-at-home mom of two miracle daughters living in Langley, BC. She is a regular contributor to The Momoir Project and writes book reviews for Women’s Post website. Danielle’s work has also appeared in many other parenting websites and in print such as: The Yummy Mummy Club, Sweet Mama and Oh Baby Magazine to name a few. Danielle has a special space in her writing for motherless mamas. She has been one since she was 10 years old.
Cool post (although it confirmed once again that I am an idiot. Even though the intro always says clearly that this is a post by SOMEONE ELSE I always start reading and then think ‘what the…Amber doesn’t have a three-year-old daughter. WTF? Am I on the wrong blog? Oh right — it’s Thursday).
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Thanks for such a lovely snapshot of your working life and discussion re: working lunches. It’s v easy for me to stay at the bench for lunch and not leave the house between school runs. Luckily I have found friends who similarly feel stir crazy so our working lunches are catching up with each other, either out for a walk or at a local cafe (yes, the one with the oreos, Amber).
I’m with Allison. I looked at the picture and thought, weird. That does NOT look like Amber!
I remember working lunches. Sigh. The expense account was the best part of my job.
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What a great story! I never expected to be a SAHM, either, but somehow it just worked out that way, and now I can’t picture it any other way.
Great post. Looks like you have it going on Danielle. You’re certinaly on the road to somewhere (haha). Love the idea of freshly applied makeup.
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Danielle, I came at paid work from a different direction: f/t teaching, then SAHM for years, followed by p/t contracts based on my small children’s and husband’s schedules. When the youngest was a teen-ager, I found a fabulous f/t manageria/teaching job that others thought was arduous. I remember thinking, in my corner office ,…OMG, this is a piece of cake compared to the multi-tasking it took to do the contracts and deal with all the SAHM stuff. So, please know how much I appreciate how hard it is to do The Juggle!
All the best to you!
Being a SAHM is the hardest job on earth. I already can’t get anything done… I just don’t get how women like you also end up starting their own business while being SAHM’s… I am in awe! Rock on.
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I’m a little envious, and I know how hard it must be to make it all – the freelance writing and the family – work out so well.
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