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This is what my day looks like, or the best part of it.
For 14 years I have proudly worn the title of SAHM (Stay At Home Mom). Now I often got the response of, “Oh, you’re a SAHM?” And I’d proudly reply yes I am. Really, don’t feel bad for us SAHM’s. We have it pretty good. Things might seem mundane, but really you never know what the kids are going to do next. And think about it. What other job do you get to be teacher, care giver, hero, nurse, doctor, super hero, fashionista, hair dresser, taxi driver, chef, referee, and confidant. There’s none. This is the job I have wanted my entire life and I get to do it. Even through the claims of I’m going to be a tow truck driver (yes, I wanted to drive a tow truck when I was 5), Veterinarian, teacher, and preschool director I always pictured myself staying home with my children.
But truth be told, it’s a huge struggle financially. My husband is a good provider, but sacrifices have had to be made. We don’t own our own home. We really live pay check to pay check. Providing extras for the kids definitely is a struggle. Often I go without so my kids can have stuff and that’s fine by me. But as the children get older they get more expensive.
What’s A Girl To Do?
Last year I had a wonderful opportunity to do an internship with Kelly McCausey of Mom’s Talk Network. I did it looking for ways to improve my blog and I did. She got me moved over to WordPress and I’m now self hosted and I really learned a lot about blogging. But I got something else out of it I didn’t expect to get. A great mentor and even a job. She ended up introducing me to the world of VA’s (Virtual Assistants) and PLR (Public Label Rights). I had no idea what any of this stuff was, but I started out doing some rewrites for her PLR business (Use Your PLR) and eventually she asked me to be her VA for Mom’s Talk Network. I was super excited to do both.
One evening I read Kelly’s book Solopreneurs Are Smarter and it really sparked a flame in me. I decided that I needed to figure out how to help more people out in the back end of running their blogs. Nothing fancy, I’m no designer here, but just doing some of the administrative stuff behind the blog. Setting up blog posts, scheduling things, doing a little social media, stuff like that. It’s all stuff I enjoy doing on my blog. Quite frankly I’m a little anal about how posts have to be set up. I couldn’t ever give it up to someone else, but I know not everyone is that particular about those little things like I am so I felt there was a need.
Figuring out how to get started was overwhelming though. Like I wanted to start a website for it. I honestly might still do that. I think I have a great name idea, but some people shot it down. So I’ve been a little nervous to really just go for it. However, word of mouth is a great thing. It seems I have made an impression on some people so I did get a referral. And about a month ago I began posting some deals for someone on her blog because she was going to be starting a new job and couldn’t devote all the time to it.
Shortly after someone contacted me about doing some Ghost writing. So last month I started doing that as well. And suddenly I was like whoa, I’m paying 3 of our monthly bills now with money to spare. Not too shabby.
And then just this week I got another client. A huge client actually monitoring their FB pages. That’s right, pages as in more than one. So what has this meant for me? Well, it means I’m no longer a SAHM. I’m now contributing to the home financially. Something I haven’t really done in 14 years. As a matter of fact, my financial contribution might be leading us to some big changes in our family. I don’t really want to talk about them now because we have two options on the table and I’m not entirely sure which way we are going to go. I wish we could do both, but we aren’t there just yet. We hope one of them comes to pass. But it feels good.
I’m A WAHM
So let me just say it, I’m a Work At Home Mom now. What do I do? Well, I have even been asked this a few times recently and I’ve said, “I’m a VA.” Then I get the, “Oh what’s that?” response. So I have to go on to explain that I take care of administrative tasks for people on their websites and deal with their social media and do some writing for them even. Now suddenly things seem more interesting to them and I get people asking more questions. I’m no longer just a SAHM. Although, I never felt like just an anything. This is a great confidence boost though. It has been interesting trying to explain this position to people who are not familiar with how things work in the online world.
I have always known if I needed to I could go out and get myself a job. I mean I’m an educated woman who’s intelligent. I really do like staying home with my children though. I like that I can schedule my work around naps and school. I can be here to get my children off to school in the morning and off the bus in the afternoon. That just has a lot of worth to me. I don’t have to pay someone else to care for my children. Honestly, if I had to I would almost be working to pay for childcare with 4 kids. That just makes no sense to me.
Don’t get me wrong here either, I truly admire working out of the home mothers. It’s just not a scenario that has ever worked for our family. My staying home is just needed and for years I have been looking for the right work at home job.
Who would have thunk this little blog would lead to that? Okay, well I kind of did. When I started in nearly 2 years ago I was hoping to carve out something with this blog. Make some connections, which is exactly what I have done. It wasn’t entirely the way I saw things going, but all things have worked out.
I have a lot of people to thank for this, but you my readers here at Monica’s Mom Musings are who I have most to thank. And as we get closer to my 2 year Blogiversary I want you to know I have not forgotten about you. I will continue to keep this blog going even though my time is stretched a little thinner now with helping others with their blog/social media. This here is still what has gotten me these opportunities so I will continue to share the type of work you’ve come to expect from me. Hopefully for many years to come.
Things might change around here, but I think that was always going to be the case anyways. My kids are growing. Eventually I won’t have toddlers to teens that I’m parenting. In 4 years it’s going to be Grade school to College. Then maybe High school mom to Grandma. All interesting times in parenting that I look forward to sharing with you all. So as long as blogging is a thing I think you’ll most likely be stuck with me. I’ve got a lot more years of parenting and blogging to get through after all.
What do you like most about Monica’s Mom Musings?
