I’ve had conversations with women lately who have tugging at their heart to raise their babies up well and pursue work for themselves. We’ve all talked about having something for us to work on and how that makes us feel. I want to share my story in hopes it gives at least one other woman the confidence to pursue what she loves and show how our leap of faith (me quitting my job) turned out to be the best decision we made for our family last year. I’ve included detailed considerations we made, how our budget balanced and even where you could look for remote work for yourself.

 

The Background

In January 2017 I said farewell to my career in public health and transitioned into my role as a stay at home mom. It had literally always been a dream of mine to be home with my babies. It was SO hard to return to work full time after I had Maven, my oldest, and still hard to return part-time after having Sylvie. Challenges and emotions aside, we made it work. At that time, working outside the home was what was best for our family in many ways and financially necessary.

But, after almost three years of continuing to work outside of the home post-two-babies, Mark and I made the decision that it was time for me to quit my job.

Considerations we made:

• Is this what was right for our family? We prayed about this for a long time leading up to the ultimate decision to leave my job. I had always felt a calling to be home with my babies, so it was an emotional decision for me though we wanted to make it a smart decision at the righttime.
• Our schedules and what made sense. Mark’s travel does play a role into our busy weekly schedules + it would fall on me to stay home if we had sick kids 99.9% of the time (which seemed to be often). This created a lot of stress in my professional life. I was also the one who would drop off and pick up kids nearly 100% of the time. It was a lot. Sometimes I would travel for work too or have workshops/conferences that I would have to move my work days around for when I was part time, and that created stress and messy scheduling, as well.
• A balanced sheet. Our numbers were going to work out. Or more specifically, we could afford for me to leave my job and live off of Mark’s income alone, but only after preparing for it and making adjustments in our monthly family budget. It was entirely doable, but some steps we took to get there included buying an older car to eliminate a car payment, reducing some monthly savings we were putting aside and reducing our “flexible spending” budget (i.e. miscellaneous purchases and dining out). None of this felt too restrictive, thank goodness.
• Paying off debt. We are still paying off my student loans (and our house ?) and that was a consideration too. We could be far more aggressive on paying those off if I had a full time income, but with all the other considerations we made, the pros + cons were weighed and me at home was the best choice.

The Transition to Staying At Home
There was definitely a transition period. It was a long, dark, Wisconsin winter, in which my children woke up WAY TOO EARLY, that was also filled with morning sickness since I was pregnant with our third little love. I loved it every day and had some really hard days, but more on that here: Becoming A Stay At Home Mom.

The Calling
I’ve always felt a calling to be home with my children. BUT, it also felt like I was being called to + I desired to work. As much as being a mom is at the core of my being, I really enjoy the professional sense of myself, too. And after a few months off of work, I was feeling motivated to find something to do to satisfy my desire to work and earn a little money that would accommodate still being home.

I wanted to find an outlet – something I could work on for me, something that would make a little money, something that used my mind in a different way than when I was at home with my kids and something that made me feel productive in the way I felt when I was pursuing my career.

The Work

• I had taken a little break from my blog but decided to make more of a commitment to it. I began treating it like a job and taking on collaborations.
• A friend of mine started an amazing consulting collaborative of women in public health called Ujima United. I joined her network + team and started working on incredible projects being through tied to her efforts.
• Through my blog + Instagram posts on breastfeeding, I was found by pumpspotting and asked to write for the mission. After writing several posts on a monthly basis for a period of time, the opportunity grew into a freelance role. It has since expanded and I now serve as a member on the pumpspotting team – which I LOVE and am so grateful for.
• Content creation and copy writing opportunities also filled my time after networking with an old colleague who had started a business + through seeking flexible jobs online.

I know you are going to ask where or how or for more details, so don’t you worry. I’m going to address ways you can find some work from home opportunities below. For me, it was about networking, leaning into what opportunities were coming my way, putting my best foot forward and always producing high quality work so I could set myself up to get referrals or continued jobs from those organizations / clients.

The Hustle

It hasn’t been easy to fit everything in. Some nights I would be up so late working (and still have nights like this frequently) because even though I have “flexible work” there are still deadlines and client needs that have to be attended to on certain timeframes. My mindset struggles from time to time. While I’m with my kids, sometimes I’m thinking about work. I wish I could compartmentalize a little more, but it’s just the nature of it – and me. In addition, sometimes the hustle requires actually doing some work while my kids are around (not napping). It does make things stressful. It also creates some demand on our family because I do need availability to be on work calls or fulfill deadlines, so we’ve had to structure our schedules accordingly. I do my best to respect family time and set boundaries to work hours, but also, when you’re working to grow something for yourself (my blog + new business endeavor aside from freelancing) it can seem a little harder to do so.

The Income & The Future
Yes, I earned over $20,000 last year working for myself in a freelance capacity. I said yes to some jobs and said no to others. I’ve been really happy with the work I’m doing. While some days and weeks feel entirely crazy fitting it all in, I have never looked back on my decision to quit my job with any feeling other than it was the best decision we could have made.

I’m sharing this income number because it’s proof that I made a dream DOABLE. I turned my desire of being a mama who is at home with her children + helping her family run smoother and combined it with my desire of also being a business woman into reality. I mixed mamahood with pursuing something for me, my passions, and for that, I’m proud.

I think this is doable other moms out there who want to do this too — to work from home and to work on things they love. It’s certainly not always easy + the path isn’t always straightforward, but through sharing my story, I wanted to showcase that it’s achievable.

The income I’ve earned is now allowing us to send Sylvie to preschool with Maven (she wanted to go so bad + we thought it would be good for her!). The income is also allowing us to fund my new business venture (more details soon – promise!), which is my hope will bring future income to my family as well.

As for the foreseeable future, I will still be freelancing in the roles I’m in now and focusing on my blog that is beginning to become more profitable, but really, I don’t have much time for new work. I am working so hard to set my new business up for success and am excited to continue working for myself in a capacity that will likely adapt again over the course of the next year. I love that I am happy with what I’m doing and passionate about what I’m working on, that makes it so easy to make the decision to continue doing what I’m doing.

You too?

Maybe some of my story struck a chord with you or maybe it’s been on your heart for a while to stay home. Maybe you are staying home with your children now and want to pursue something for yourself. I want to encourage you to look into options! Be sure to talk to your spouse and make decisions that are best for you and your family and certainly make sure your finances will work out. But, don’t let fear or hesitation hold you back. I had no idea how it was going to work out for us, but I started small and slow + learned as I went along. I took on more work / more hours as I felt I was getting in a rhythm and only did so if I was enjoying it all.

Suggestions:

If you were to ask me where you could find work from home opportunities, I would tell you to decide what you’re good at first. What do you want to do? Decide what it is you want to do and go after those opportunities.

As for specific places you can look or ways to pursue work, here’s a list to get you started:

• FlexJobs – This website is a great forum for marketing yourself and applying for remote work opportunities. (See this list that Forbes shared, too, about other websites to search.)
• Market yourself – What skills are you good at? What skills can you be known for?
• Network – Do not be afraid to ask around! Let others know what you’re good at and that you’re open to work. This is SUCH a good way to get connected to opportunities.
• Connect – with small businesses in the area, bloggers or organizations you admire. Reach out to see what they may need help with. Sometimes they may need help and just haven’t found the right person yet or you can pitch how you can bring them VALUE by utilizing those skills you rock at.
• Think — Can you find an area that you can become niche in? For example, some hot areas for marketing businesses right now include Pinterest marketing or Email marketing. Are you niche in accounting or book keeping? Organization or event planning? Also, don’t be afraid to continue your education and become really good at something. Maybe there’s an online course or webinar out there that will help set you apart + further your skills.
• Volunteer – Join something and add it to your resume. It may lead to paid opportunities in the future.

A Couple Key Lessons I’ve Learned

• Simply put, I can’t do everything without childcare. I would have to say, I feel better and function better if I can get a block of time to dedicate solely to do work rather than squeeze it into nap times or unpredictable times of breaks with my kids. Most moms I know in my “work from home position” feel the same. Maybe we have to start like that, as in just fitting things in naps or after bedtime, but maybe once income grows enough, there will be ability to get some dedicated childcare hours! If not, block your weekend time. Even now I sometimes get to a coffee shop for a couple of un-distracted hours on the weekend just to tackle my major to-dos.
• If you fill your time with commitments and work you love, you find the time for it– even if you may constantly feel like “how am I going to fit this all in?” The beauty is that filling our lives with the good things enriches us all.

It’s been a 30-year journey to get to this point in my “career”. And even though so much of it is non-traditional, I’m loving everything I’m doing + at a stepping stone to pursuing my entrepreneurial dreams, too. (Read: Journey to My Greatest Job!) But first and foremost, my role as mama is near and dear to my heart. I feel incredibly thankful I’ve been able to be the mom I want to be for my children and that I created an achievable work situation that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Contributing to my family in both of these ways is truly fulfilling.

My hope after sharing this post is that if you have it on your heart to explore new work opportunities or to stay home with your babies, that you’ll take a step in the direction of making it happen. Make your considerations and explore your options. I’m cheering for you!

XO