Danielle here. For most families summer is the happiest time of the year. The kids are out and happily engaged in summertime fun. It’s a bit more complicated at my house. Every year I struggle with balancing what my kids want with the needs of my business.
Here’s the deal: My son doesn’t like day camp. It’s not a particular camp that’s the problem – it’s the institution of camp. Just too much change, too much new for my little guy. He’d prefer to be home all summer. Endless days of doing not much from the comfort of home would be absolutely perfect for him.
The problem is that having my kids home all summer doesn’t work for me. For starters, my daughter would go nuts within about five minutes – no amount of change is too much for her. But beyond that, I’m usually swamped at work during the summer months. You’d think that the fleece blanket business would be pretty slow as the mercury rises. I used to think so too. Then I wondered why I was so busy all summer! A few years ago I figured out that summer is a very busy time at Admiral Road and that finding a childcare solution is key to getting it all done.
Herein lies the conundrum, along with a hearty dose of mommy guilt. To run my mompreneur business, I have to send my kid into a summer of discomfort. We call this the mompreneur paradox – starting a business to be available to your kids and then needing to pack them off so you can run it. Not once since we started camp have I avoided feeling like a bad mother and a horrible person.
So what do I do? Well we choose our camps carefully and asked for the kindest, gentlest counsellors. We do 60% of the summer at camp at 40% of the summer hanging out with the family. My son doesn’t exactly suffer in silence and summer never feels like the break I think it is for most people. But like anything in life as a mompreneur – it’s not perfect – we do our best to balance everyone’s needs and try not to be too hard on ourselves. And in our house, we breathe a little easier when September rolls around.
Have you experienced the mompreneur paradox? Tell us about it and how you cope with it.
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