If Motherhood was a paying job....I'd be fired!

Since this blog mostly promotes my business I don't often vent here.  But I'm sure others are feeling the same stress this time of year!  Well, yesterday I forgot to send my child's library book back to school.  So she had to watch all the other kids check out a book and didn't get one (keep in mind we are talking about 4 year olds).  And we were late for preschool today.  Again.  Okay, so I know it is just preschool, but isn't this supposed to help set a precedent and teach our children the importance of school so that they are off on the right foot?  Oh well.  Then, I was the last parent to send in that 5 feet of ribbon the teacher asked for (several times), and guess what I sent?  Old purple ribbon that had been in my craft box for about 5 years.  Hopefully they didn't mean Christmas ribbon.  Oh, and I sent my toddler to his MMO class with a teeny tiny fever.  Yes, I am now that parent.  When I was a teacher, it drove me crazy when parent sent their sick kid to school.   I mean, don't they care that the child (might) be sick?  Don't they notice?  Well, the shoe is on the other foot now.  He was acting normal, and if he had a fever it was very low...rules say anything over 100 degrees to keep them home.  (BTW, he had a fun time and was fine...just for the record).  But I felt guilty the whole time! 

Let's see, what else?  I forgot to RSVP to a birthday party and the mom had to chase me down in the hall to find out that we can't come.  I didn't reply to an email about my daughter's playdate, so that mom had to call to make sure I remembered.  I didn't get my niece a birthday gift and her birthday was Monday. We only have the lights on the tree and nothing else done.  Any Christmas shopping that can be done online is finished, otherwise I haven't started.  And that is just in the last 24 hours!  So, all of this doesn't seem that bad, but I was thinking that if I messed up this many times at a job, as small as the mistakes are, I would most likely be filing for unemployment! 

Luckily my current employer can be placated with a big sippy cup of milk and a snuggle.  And the other CEO I work for just wants someone to sit down and read Christmas stories with her and color pictures.  So, to make it up to my bosses, maybe tonight I will make some yummy (slice and bake) cookies and watch Rudolph.  Hmmm, maybe I'm not so bad at this job after all!

Wordless Wednesday - Santa's Little Helper

My little guy has been helping get orders ready to go out!  He could be an advertisement for USPS!

Seriously, none of these are for me???

Work at Home Helper Blog Carnival: An All-American Work at Home Mom

When my first child was born, my husband and I made the tough decision for me to stay home with the baby. It was what I had always wanted, but cutting our income in half was going to be an adjustment. I had just finished my Master’s degree in education, and that, paired with my National Board Certification gave me two additional salary bonuses that I would only benefit from for a few months if I left. I was at the top of my professional game, but I had been teaching other people’s children for 14 years, and as an “older” mom and after years of infertility, I was ready to spend some time enjoying my newborn. The first year was wonderful but tough, as it is on all first-time parents! We were so lucky to have an “easy” baby, although I don’t think we realized it at the time (it wasn’t until our son was born that we realized how good we had it with our daughter). One of the things going on at that time was all of the recalls for the lead-tainted Chinese products. I was very committed to buying high-quality safe products for my daughter, and I really preferred to buy American-made, but it was so hard to find at the time! The Made in the USA products were out there, it was just a challenge to pull everything I needed together. I figured that other parents must be feeling the same way, and I wished there was one place I could find everything! That is when the idea for All-American Baby was born, and my husband and I began the planning process for our very own business!

It has been a wonderful adventure, but certainly one with a lot of challenges, and both successes and failures along the way. At one point we had our own retail space, but the amount of extra time and effort was not worth it. The online store was growing much faster and sales were stronger, so we backed down on the retail location to focus on the website. The biggest challenge for me has been striking the balance between work and home, since work is at home! I have to made sure I schedule time away from work…having my work at home makes it harder to get away from it. And honestly, being in retail, especially children’s retail, does make the holiday season that much more hectic. But having the flexibility to be at home with my children every day (even if part of that time I am “trying” to work) is so worth it. I get to enjoy the everyday joys of raising my children. I am able to set my own schedule and can be completely flexible when things come up, such as a sick child, or just a beautiful afternoon when we want to get outside for a picnic! My advice to any parents beginning the “work at home” adventure is to be prepared to work hard to strike the balance that is right for you. It is not as easy as it seems!

This post is part of the blog carnival "Share Your Work at Home Success Story" at the Work at Home Helper.