The joys of working from home

**Collaborative post**

Many mums are now choosing to work from home and launch their own self-employment careers rather than venturing back into full-time employment after having their little bundle of joy. And you can do the same. Just because the tradition has been to have your baby, take six months maternity leave and then return to your job, you don’t have to fall into this way of life. Many mums see their maternity leave as an epiphany. The sheer joy of being with your baby every day is something that you might not want to give up. Even if you do utilise childcare, you might not want to do this five days a week.

Being a mumpreneur is a relatively new phenomenon. However, with the dawn of the Internet and the world becoming smaller, freelancers and self-employed bods are able to work from home and carve out successful careers. This is ideal for the mum who wants to stay at home with their little darling full time. It’s not all plain sailing, though. There’s zero chance of you earning your full-time equivalent wage in your first month as an eBay entrepreneur, a craft seller or a ball bearing importer. You need to ensure that you have a large enough financial cushion to allow for a couple of lean months as you find your feet in this new self-employed world.

There are plenty of roles you can take on as a work from home mum. Perhaps you already work in an industry that lends itself to self-employment. Maybe you are an accountant and can use your new mum status as an excuse to leave your current role, set up on your own and take your little book of contacts with you. Or perhaps you want to follow a passion that has always been niggling you, such as making custom made t-shirts, designing jewellery or upcycling furniture. Whatever it is that you want to do, now is the time to do it. Read onto discover the joys of working from home.

Procrastination

While the whole concept of procrastinating is perilous, there is a little bit of joy to be had in the knowledge that you can take ten minutes during your day to scroll through your Facebook feed whenever the mood takes you. The problem arises when you are spending the entire working day doing a whole lot of nothing. If you’re watching the TV all hours, forgetting important meetings, not updating your brand’s social media feeds, and the odd pyjama day is turning into a regular occurrence, then working from home might not be for you. However, if you can harness your procrastination and you have the determination and willpower to knuckle down and do some work, the freedom that being at home with your baby can give you is immense.

Combining Efforts

When working from home, you may find yourself with more time to fill. If you have answered all of your important emails over your favourite coffee and you have a spare hour, you might be keen to upskill yourself. By utilising the time that you have in a productive way, you are enhancing your CV and empowering yourself to be even better at your job. 

Perhaps the idea of one job working from home doesn’t do it for you anymore. There are plenty of people who have morphed into a jack-of-all-trades sort of role to earn themselves a decent living. Some people are freelance bloggers, social media managers, and part-time photographers and sell their vintage finds online as part of their self-employment status. By combining your skills, efforts and job roles, you can have a fulfilling and satisfying working life that enables you to be a stay-at-home mum.

Coffee Breaks

Forget waiting for your boss to say when you can go on your break, you are now the master of your own destiny. You can choose when you head outside for a stroll around the park, when and where you take your lunch hour (or two!) and when you have your coffee breaks throughout the day. These are also times when you can sort some other activities that need doing throughout your day. You might need to put on a laundry wash to get those bibs and baby vests clean. Maybe you need to put your little one’s lunch on. Or maybe you fancy meeting up with your other mum pals over coffee.

Your day can now become as flexible as you want it to be. Gone is the rigid pattern of full-time work. This can take some getting used to, especially if you have been used to an overbearing boss and a micromanaging employer. You can choose when you take a break to read a book, paint your nails, do the grocery shop, try out a new recipe or head to the gym. The possibilities to seek out the perfect work-life balance are endless.

You Become Happier

People who shun the rat race tend to be happier than those who are struggling with the nine-to-five grind. Your partner may notice the change in your demeanour, happiness, and mood. This can lead to a more reinvigorated you. At the weekends when you are together as a family unit, you can dedicate your efforts to making happy memories. There’s no need to worry about the Monday morning lull because you are working from home. This improves your Sundays and leads to more quality family time.

When you work for yourself, you recognise the need for happiness and positive mental health over monetary gain. Yes, you need to earn a living, but you don’t need to have more money than you know what to do with if that means no work-life balance, poor mental health and no time to spend with your little bundle of joy. Take a step back and assess what is most important to you. Now you have your little cherub, the chances are family will be the number one priority for you.

Taking Time Off

When you work for somebody else, you need to apply for your holiday. As your kids grow older, this means competing with your colleagues for the prime school holiday vacation slots. If you’re too late, this might mean forking out more for childcare and being unable to take an annual holiday. All this changes when you work for yourself. As a freelancer, you decide when to take your holiday. If you want to, and you can afford it, you might want to take forty days holiday one particular year instead of the bog standard twenty-five.

Being able to take more holiday, for an extended period, means that new opportunities are opened up to you. Perhaps you fancy taking a three-week jaunt with your new family unit to visit your relatives in Australia. Or maybe you just fancy heading off on a last-minute holiday because you’ve seen an incredible deal online. Being self-employed allows you to do this in a way that being employed by somebody else does not.

Child Led

At the centre of this decision to work from home is your child. Every decision you make now is based on the needs and wants of your little one. Working from home can be financially viable as it saves a ridiculous amount of money on childcare costs, and helps you to create a deeper bond with your little one. When your little one is ill, you will always be there. If they need to head to a hospital appointment, you can always be the person to take him or her.

While there’s nothing wrong with heading back to work, experiencing the camaraderie of an office atmosphere and being a full-time employee, for some mums this just doesn’t suit them anymore. Some yearn for the freedom that being self-employed brings. If you can’t go self-employed immediately, enquire at your workplace about going part-time. This way, you have some free time to get stuck into a potential side hustle. Dip your toe in the work-from-home waters and see if this is a viable option for you. Some of us aren’t fortunate enough to be able to take the plunge straight away, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t work up to being self-employed in the future.

Working from home is terrifying to begin with as much as it is exciting. However, never lose sight of the reasons you are choosing to work for yourself. You will be at home with your baby, you’ll have time to work on developing yourself, you will have a better work-life balance and you will be the master of your own destiny. Forget about the sphere of full-time employed work and welcome to the world of working from home.

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