Saturday, April 16, 2005

My Not So Real Job as a Work at Home Mom

I wonder how many other work at home moms find themselves in the position of just wanting to scream sometimes. How many suffer from the “just because you work from home means you don’t really work” syndrome?

There are some day’s I just want to beat my head against the wall due to the lack of respect I get because I have chosen to be a work at home mom and have grown to be what I would consider, somewhat successful at it.

That certainly wasn’t the issue last year when my husband was off work due to a back injury. Did anyone question where the money was coming from that kept this family going? Heck no! But now all the sudden since he has started working full time for the family business, it seems that my work at home position has become a play job that is of lesser importance and trivial at best.

Sure I don’t mind helping out with the family business a couple months out of the year when they are in the midst of their busy season, but what people just don’t get is that I am doing it out of courtesy to the family and not out of necessity.

I’ve had family members bring their children or grandchildren over to have me baby-sit “since I am home all day.” I’ve had others speak of my ability to keep my stepchildren all summer “because I am at home all day.” There are times when others will call and want to talk about trivial things such as the weather and pass along idle gossip for literally hours on end, because I am at home, I have nothing better to do.

Do people actually think that us work at home moms can create a site, paste it up on the net somewhere and sit on the couch watching soaps and eat chocolate bon bon’s all day while the money comes rolling in? It’s absurd.

During my time at home I do my “wifely” and “motherly” duties such as cleaning, laundry, cooking etc. all while bouncing back and forth working on content, links, answering emails, marketing or some other vital ingredient in an successful online business.

Over Christmas break I had my two children along with my two stepchildren. It was “expected” that I not spend time on the internet “because it can wait till after the holidays” and spend more time focusing on the family and taking care of the four kids on holiday. During that time I was able to show just how search engine rankings drop in the matter of days, if sites aren’t maintained. But here I am four months later and no one seems to remember those discussions.

My husband had accused me of being a work-a-holic a few times so I cut back tremendously on my time online. But in recent weeks he has been working FAR more hours than I ever did and it’s easily justified by the fact that “he is the man.” OH I wanted to scream!

Is there other work at home moms out there that find themselves in similar situations? How on earth do you cope?

Well I better get back to my not so real job so I can make my not so real money that pays for my not so real car and buys our not so real food and clothes.

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