One of the main reasons that Danielle and I wanted to write Mom Inc. was to dispel some of the myths of mompreneurship. Despite what one might read in the media, mompreneurship is no walk in the park. Like any job, running your own company as a mom is work - plain and simple. And even though you may want to go into business for yourself in order to be available for your family, you’ll quickly figure out the challenges that this arrangement presents.
One of these challenges is that working on your business (i.e. making money) and spending time with your children are often mutually exclusive. You can take that vacation, but that means that not much will happen at work that week.
My family recently rented a cottage in northern Ontario. My husband is also self-employed, so vacations are hard to come by. The weather up north was amazing. Perfect summer days were spent splashing in the pool, canoeing in the lake and lolling in the grass. It was glorious. But not without guilt.
One of our mompreneur friends likes to say, “Motherhood is choice: the choice about what to feel most guilty about!” Now don’t get me wrong, I loved our cottage vacation. Time spent with the five of us and five of us alone is rare. But it’s hard to shut off the rest of life, isn’t it? It’s tough to sit and look at that glorious lake without thinking about the team in office back home.
Tough – but not impossible. Believe me, the food, the wine and sunny days helped a lot. That, and most importantly, the knowledge that I’ve got a supportive team back home taking care of business. In fact, if I didn’t have that team back home, I think it would be a lot harder to enjoy the break.
So thanks, Team. Thanks for subbing for me while I was away; for not hassling me with work issues that can wait until I get home; and for allowing me to enjoy a few blissful summer days by a lake with my family. I couldn’t have re-charged the batteries without you.
Do you work on your own? Who are the people on your ‘team’?
Printer-friendly version