In Your Face, Supermom

This week, I have made the most that I ever have with Textbroker. I implemented a new strategy that I hope will pay dividends in the projected growth of my write at home business. I just sat down and did it. Yep, that's it. And, although I enjoy writing - yes, even about the Uniform Commercial Code - it isn't always that easy get all Nike about it and just do it.

It makes me a rather poor feminist to admit that my biggest albatross has been self-inflicted mom guilt. You know the kind. The kiddos wrap their precious little arms around you when you tell them you are quitting your job to be at home with them all day long. Then, a few years later, necessity and impending insanity compels you start doing something to make a little money and alleviate the failure complex the laundry has instilled in you.

The Super Mom demigoddess, the image of which we torture ourselves to live up to, tells us that we should be able to entertain limitless interruptions and still make the writing quota that will pay for that pricey summer camp. And if we can't tolerate interruptions, then we should get up at the crack of dawn to churn out words, an ode to our great-grandmothers who not only churned butter, but also fed the chickens and made biscuits all in the time it takes us to perk up with half a pot of coffee.

Well, it wasn't happening for me. I felt frazzled and perplexed. Finally, I realized that my insistence to multitask was only spreading the failure around. Everything was getting done, but poorly and sporadically.

I wish I could say that my determination alone was all I needed to turn things around. Truthfully, we were getting down to the last inning, or the last quarter, or whatever it is they do in golf. Hubby and I are setting goals and my income is essential to their completion. It was either make this work at home thing work or get a real (boring) job. Thanks, a lot, Dave Ramsey.

I've known from the get-go that I don't want to re-enter the office grind. For various reasons, it's a dead end for me, a road guaranteed to be paved with frustration, not to mention the uncomfortable shoes. But, I am also realizing the value of working from home. I may be a big ol' meanie when I tell my kids that they must save their questions for when I am not working. But, if I get to doing this thing right, I'll have income and no boss to ration my presence at school functions. If I get my act together, then I'll have a job and still be here when they get home from school. And we won't have to churn our own butter to make it work. Camp money will be had and I might even submit to shopping for a few school clothes at the mall.

In other words, giving this thing my all and doing it right may make me feel good and that good feeling isn't anything to feel guilty about (you got that, miss hotshot-demigoddes?) I'm also doing a heck of a thing for my family when I focus on our future and not the current crisis that makes it imperative that the kids ask Mom for that sugary treat now, not ten minutes from now, I mean, now.