I am a Work At Home Mum. It’s a great job, the hours are crap, the pay could be better, but I can’t imagine doing anything else or loving what I do any more.
The thing is – I never feel like I do quite enough.
In the times of BC (before children), I enjoyed a very fulfilling (and demanding) career in Health & Social Care. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, I loved it and was fully prepared to return to work after Kieran was born. That is until Kieran was born. I’m sure I’ve blogged about this before so won’t bore you with the ins and outs of why our plans changed but they did, and I found myself at home, jobless (and income-less more to the point!). That had to change quickly and after testing the waters I started my own home-based business selling children’s books. For 3yrs I did very well with it. This was an income though and not a passion, so early last year I decided it was time to bite the bullet and shake things up a bit. And I did! Now I am building an income from blogging & writing and slowly but surely am getting there. The rest as they say, is history!
So that is how I got here. I’m now a Mum of two gorgeous boys, I work from home pretty much full-time now, am a full-time housewife, full-time mum…. I’m a busy lady! The thing is, because I’m not bringing in a full-time income, I seem to find myself pushing myself harder and harder. I work hard to bring in an income – damn hard, I don’t just make our meals, I research recipes and spend a lot of time finding new meals for everyone to enjoy. I don’t do the shopping, I shop around and I visit different shops in order to save a few pounds. I try and be the Mum who does the baking, the crafts, the walks, the activities, I make dens, sing song and do as many of the cool things as possible. I make sure Roy’s tea is ready when he gets home, that homework is done, that there are always clean clothes and shiny shoes and gawd I do a lot! No-one asks me to constantly push and try and go the extra mile, in fact Roy regularly tells me to take a step back and that I don’t need to have tea ready, the dishes done and no-one will collapse if I serve omelette and chips instead of a flavoursome meaty dish!
Why do I do it? I call it my WAHM guilt, I sometimes feel like I have to be everything to everyone and do well… everything to “make up” for being at home. Don’t get me wrong, I am deliriously happy with my life and wouldn’t change it. In fact I’m not sure I could do less now.. I’d be bored lol!
Is this an isolated phenomenon? Do other WAHM’s feel like this? Please feel free to leave a message with your thoughts / experiences. I’d love to read them.