I’m a work-at-home mom. This means that I get the best of both worlds. When my boys were little, I was able to be at home with them. This meant no giving half my paycheck to child care. And, I didn’t have to compromise my income or my career either. 

I was able to continue learning, growing, and challenging myself… all from the comfort of my couch and yoga pants. 

But it wasn’t always easy. Imagine Sheryl Sandburg (COO, Facebook) showing up to work with her kids. It would be chaos if she showed up with no plan or warning. 

When working from home, there’s a fair amount of juggling needed to keep the clients AND the kiddos happy. But it’s all worth it. 

Here are some tricks I learned along the way to find balance between the work and home so you too can be a happy work-at-home Mom. 

1) Be Up-front with Your Clients 

As a work-at-home Mom, it’s really important you work only with clients that are going to respect your Mom hat too. Bottom line, you’re clients may hear kiddos in the background when you have calls. 

When my boys were little, I tried to plan my client calls around their nap-times. If a client wanted to do a call at a time when the boys were likely to be around and lively I’d give the clients a heads up. I’d say something like “I am able to speak at that time, but it’s likely you’ll hear my little superhero fighting bad-guys in the background at that time.”

Of course, I’d always make sure to have be in a quiet space when possible.  

2) Schedule Mom time

When working at home, it’s so easy just to eat lunch at the laptop and keep working when chasing a deadline. But, lunch time can be a great time to schedule in time with your kiddos to let them know their important too. Take the time to sit and eat with your kids. Make this a quality time that they can look forward to each day. 

This will, often times, help them be more understanding when you say “hey buddy, I can’t wait to spend time with you at lunch. But I have to finish this one thing then it’s just you and me and our sandwiches.” Maybe have them go set the table while you finish up that last thing.  

3) Have a Routine

Every single successful work-at-home Mom I know has one thing in common. They have a routine. They make sure to schedule in time for work, time for the kids, and even time for themselves. After a while the routine becomes habit. 

But this helps make sure that all of those hats you’re wearing get the right priority and attention. 

Support for the Work-at-home Mom

Do you struggle to find balance as a work-at-home Mom? It took me years to find my balance, and some days I still want to pull out my hair. 

But when you get a routine and stay organized, balance is possible. And it is possible to WIN at both work and home as a work-at-home Mom. 

Do you want to be a work-at-home Mom? Take this 60-second quiz to discover your virtual superpower (and the tips and tricks to get started) today at www.virtualsuperpower.com