Category Archives: Work at Home Parents

Making Big Adjustments as a WAHM

By on August 16th, 2012

It’s that time again! The kids are going back to school! This means my house will in an uproar for a few weeks while we try to get everyone and everything settled again for the school year. While you might expect me to celebrate my kids going back to school as a sign that I’ll have more time in the day to write, I am a bit outside that demographic. I play double-duty ten months of the year as both a WAHM and a WOHM. That means (for those uninitiated in Mom abbreviations) I am both a work-at-home-mom and a …

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Why This Freelancer Never Takes Vacations

By on August 2nd, 2012

After many years, I went on a vacation last week. The trip was great, of course, except for one small detail. About two days before we left for Colorado and the cool mountain breezes, my largest client “changed direction” overnight. My primary contact was laid off and my regular blogging commitments stopped effective immediately. Not exactly the sort of send off I was hoping for, but not too much out of the norm in the world of freelance. In this case a new CEO chose to change things up in the company I was working with. In the past I’ve …

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Freelancing My Way to a Real Vacation

By on July 19th, 2012

I have a bit of a confession to make. I haven’t gone on a real vacation in about ten years. I know. Shoot me now. I do have some good reasons for the lack of travel. My husband is a homebody so he’s not struck with wanderlust. When I do travel, I’m usually going to see family for a few days with plenty of obligations along with a bit of fun. We went to Disney World for a day…since we were in town already to see a family member in ICU and it turns out the hospital isn’t a great …

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Writing at Home: Can I Do This?

By on July 5th, 2012

It’s not an unusual question. We all wonder from time to time if this world of freelancing from home is worth the extra time and effort it takes to be successful. Naturally we usually find plenty of reasons that it is, in fact, worth the hassles and stress. To name a few: freelance writers who work at home enjoy schedule flexibility, more time with family, freedom to enjoy other daily pursuits and the lack of any office politics, drama or boss. But there are things about freelancing at home that cause us to doubt from time to time, and if …

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Posted in Work at Home Parents, Working From Home |

Is Freelance Writing Wasting Your Time?

By on June 21st, 2012

I was browsing through a popular working mom forum recently and found a popular thread that was both interesting and disturbing. In the thread, moms were discussing their work schedule – a popular topic I like to discuss as well. On the forum, the moms were describing how much of their day they spend dedicated to writing part-time and it disturbed me. A lot. The Ten-Hour Work Day The biggest trend I saw for most of these work-at-home moms was that they were working over about ten hours per day. They would do a bit here and a bit there …

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When Working Conditions Are Never Right

By on June 7th, 2012

There are those among us who can only work when the conditions are just right. They must have the right music or show on in the background. They must have their ergonomic chair positioned just so and their office door opened exactly three inches to allow for cross ventilation while blocking 93 percent of all regular household noises. I’m not that person. Nor is any parent working at home – if they choose to work while the kids are around. Working in Chaos While I wouldn’t call life with two kiddos chaos, it can reach that point quickly enough. For …

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The Small Joys of Working Online

By on April 26th, 2012

It might be the hours I keep, but there are some things about this business that just strike me as funny at the most unusual times. I’m sure it’s not a condition isolated to this working-mom-freelance-writer-person, so let’s see how many of you have the same random bits of humor that I do: I’m a Mystery to Advertisers Everywhere I don’t know why, but it cracks me up when I realize that once again I’ve fooled Google. I use Gmail to consolidate some email accounts so that I can check everything no matter where I am or what computer I’m …

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3 Ways to Kick Into Writing Gear NOW!

By on April 12th, 2012

It’s amazing what a three-day weekend can do to your morale when it comes to picking up that virtual pen and getting back to work on Monday. I won’t lie to you – my schedule sucks sometimes and this is definitely one of those days. My day started at 6 am, I was in a meeting on a Monday morning at 7:30 where I learned I’d be “privileged” to have groups of other teachers possibly coming by to learn from and question my teaching practices. What a way to jumpstart a Monday after a break, right? The day continued in …

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Writing When You Just Can’t Write Anymore

By on March 29th, 2012

The wall. The block. It exists for all of us, and in my tired brain it seems to be hitting harder than it used to. Normally I don’t run out of things to say when I hit writer’s block – I run out of energy to say them. How can I get fired up to write something amusing or brilliant when I’d much rather be curled up with a mind-numbing novel or perhaps laying in bed staring at the ceiling fan going around and around. Never in my lifetime prior to becoming a parent did I realize just how exhausted …

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Freelancing Makes You…Cocky?

By on March 15th, 2012

Those of us who have found success working in freelance writing or freelance anything are bound to have at least a little bit of arrogance. After all, we’re the ones who’ve figured out how to make the system work for us. We’re not cogs in a giant machine anymore – or if we are, it’s by choice. We’re successful business owners. Ah, independence. Declaring Arrogance I’ve known it for years, but I’m going to just get it out there in the open. You might consider me stuck up. I’m not conceited about my great beauty. Two kids, thirty-two years and …

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