It has been awhile since I have touched on the topic of balancing working at home and taking care of your family.  My daughter is turning 5 in April and while there have been ups and downs, I am so very glad that my business has allowed me to stay home with her during these first few years of her life.

Early on I worked when she napped and after she went to bed at night.  We don’t rely on tv much (we are a Waldorf family), so I’ve had to be creative in other ways. Lots of art projects have been made on the kitchen table while I work on my laptop. When she stopped napping, we enrolled her in preschool three mornings a week.

She has grown so much at her school that she is now going to school five mornings a week, which gives me time work in the morning and then spend time with her in the afternoon. Which isn’t to say I don’t sneak in work time while she is busy playing, but I try not to spend too much time working then. I always devote a portion of the day just to her.

This past year has been a difficult one for my business, but I learning and moving on.  My mojo is back and I know that 2010 is going to be the year for me. Which brings me to my point.  Working at home and affiliate marketing can be a difficult road sometimes, but it is so rewarding when you work hard and stick with it. Every day I am home with my daughter, able to attend events whenever needed and make my own schedule.  That makes everything worth it.

This summer has not gone well as far as work goes. It hasn’t been too good for personal goals either. During the school year my 4-year-old goes to school 5 mornings a week. It is perfect for getting work done and for getting to the gym for the recommended 3 30-minute cardio sessions a week.

And then comes the summer. Her school offered a small summer camp program that only lasted for 3 weeks. She didn’t want to go and I didn’t want to drop her off in tears every morning. It was run by a teacher she is unfamiliar with and it really didn’t seem worth the effort. She is not keen on going to the child care at the gym either, so that is not an option.

I had entertained thoughts of hiring a babysitter for the summer to come a few mornings a week while I worked from home. With all the belt-tightening going on though, sales have tanked a bit for me which means my income has gone down considerably in the the last few months. I have some other theories as to why, but I am working on rectifying it. So hiring someone is out as well.

All this to say there is a whole lot of togetherness going on this summer. It is all a bit frustrating to say the least. I need more time to work on sites, so that I can improve my income and yet my daughter is demanding much more of my time. She is pretty good at playing independently until I sit down to try and accomplish something.

I was hoping this week to start waking up an hour or so before her in the morning but she seemed to sense my plan by waking up a good two hours before she normally does. Hopefully I can implement the plan next week.

Other than the normal get up early, work after bedtime, plop in front of tv, what suggestions do you have for getting work done during the summer? There is a good 7 weeks before school starts and it sure seems like a long time…

I am really enjoying this time that my daughter is in preschool. There have been a few tears shed in the morning, but overall she is having a really great time. I am also able to devote that time to working and I am feeling less pressure to work at bedtime and naptime (what little there is anymore). Which leads me to free time! Yay! I am loving free time. We just signed up for Netflix again with the writer’s strike. Although Lost starts tonight and I am very excited about that.

Anyway my blogging is done for the week and I have been able to check numerous other things off my list. I think this is going to be a short work week though. They are forecasting large amounts of snow to fall tomorrow and I am guessing tomorrow will be a snow day at my daughter’s school. I am already making plans for some baking or art projects to occupy our time. Pretzels that she can help me make are always a good time.

Today my daughter started preschool. She has just turned 2 years and 9 months old. I was going to wait til the fall to start her at preschool but not having anyone to watch her during the week so that I can work was starting to take it’s toll. So we looked around to find a preschool in our area that would take a non-potty trained, non-three-year-old and fits our ideals. And we found it and it is awesome and she started today! Oh goodness was I so nervous this morning, but my daughter handled it like a real trooper and had a great time. I will have a whole 6 hours every week to devote completely to working. I am so excited and hope that I can get a ton done in that time. I would love to have more time to devote to my family and my hobbies without having to share it with work.

I would have to say that one of the biggest obstacles in working from home is my daughter. I love my daughter dearly and I did not want to put her in daycare after she was born. It took me about a year to get back on my feet so to speak after she was born. I had a hard time focusing on anything for very long, definitely a case of mommy brain. I had to find that new normal and learn that it was also a constantly changing thing.

She is 2 1/2 now and we seem to be at a very challenging stage. She is at that point where she may or may not take a nap during the day. I had relied on that time to work and now I can’t. If she does take a nap, then it takes forever for her to fall asleep at night. I think one of the solutions may be to get up earlier in the morning, but I am not much of a morning person.

I am lucky though in that she will play independently for awhile. So I can get some work done during the day. That time is often interrupted by requests for food, drinks, reading books, playing, etc. So it is not very focused time. It took me a better part of the afternoon to reply to an email interview request.

My husband and I made the decision early on that we didn’t want to put our daughter in daycare. One we really didn’t want anyone else raising our daughter and two it is so very expensive. Now that she is older we have tossed around the idea of trying out preschool. She isn’t potty trained yet, so that limits our options. We tried out a Mother’s Helper type situation one afternoon a week but it didn’t work out too well for a multitude of reasons. My parents split their time between here and Florida. When they are here, they watch her one day a week which is wonderful for everyone. Currently they are in Florida and we miss them dearly.

If you work from home, how do you manage working with a little one under your feet? Any tips or suggestions that you would like to share?