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Be the perfect WAHM
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| Be the perfect WAHM |
| By Priyanka Bhattacharya |
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I am lucky that I am a Work-at-Home- Mom (WAHM). Despite crazy schedules, often haphazard cruising through the day, dark circles, and serious sleep deprivation, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I get to be with my kids, give them the security of an everpresent parent, and have a passably successful career that allows me to earn a respectable living, supplementing the family budget. It didn’t come easy though – taking that decision was tough and the transition tougher. There was a time when women had to make seriously tough decisions – they could either have great careers, or be a great mom. However the career pattern for women across the globe is changing as they realise the importance of balancing both a career and effective parenting.
Reset your expectations
Once you decide to become a full-time mom with work-from-home options, there are many changes
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that you have to be ready to deal with. It is not always easy to separate work from home when your ‘office’ is right next to your kitchen or your child’s study table. So there is a need for lot more discipline than you would need if you were an office going mom. You also need to downsize your expectations of yourself. As a WAHM, I often struggle with meeting deadlines because I commit to a timeframe that always seems reasonable in my mind but never in my reality. Writes Lori Ramsay, author of the book Preparing To Be A Work At Home Mom, “Change your mindset, or your lifestyle. You do not have to have bigger homes, more pricey cars or all the things that keep you running in the rat race. Downsizing is one of the smartest things you can do.”
Retrain for a new career
For most of us, traditional education does not throw up job options for mothers looking for at-home careers. “I did not know any cooking before my marriage! I worked in a corporate environment for a year before I tied the knot. So the work I do now is definitely different from what I had studied and trained for,” says WAHM Shweta Nagpal, who runs her cupcakes and birthday food catering service Little Bites in Bangalore. Most often you will find that what you took as a hobby or a favourite pastime becoming a source of income for you. “I have always been very passionate about my music but never had any plans to make a career out of it. When I started teaching music, my in-person as well as my online students used to often tell me that my lessons were very detail-oriented, focused and the value added was much higher than anything they had experienced before. My husband would tell me that I had a special skill that I could use along with my strong academic background to take Carnatic music to a much wider student base than people had attempted before,” explains Vidya Subramanian, who teaches Carnatic music to students across the world via the online medium (www.vidyasubramanian.com). Worry not if you do not have a hobby that can help you earn money. Look at short term courses in interior design, personal grooming, web design and development, or content writing which offer a decent income and a certain level of flexibility.
Connect with your old workplace
An interesting trend catching up is that of IT companies looking to get back the talent they lost when women techies took a break for parenting. According to Saundarya Rajesh, founder president, AVTAR Career Creators & FLEXI Careers India, over 18 per cent of white-collar women work force is lost due to family reasons. With severe engineering talent crunch in the country, many IT majors like Microsoft, IBM, TCS are offering women options to work from home and part-time jobs. Talking about this move, Rajiv Burman, HR director, Microsoft IT-India (MSIT) says, “If you do not make your company attractive to women, you are losing 50 per cent of your talent pool in India. Why lose out on talent that has constraints due to personal reasons?” says Burman. So if you have technical or management skills, it is a good idea to connect with such companies because they are now open to offering flexi-work setups. This option is also great for mothers who have slightly older children, who can manage on their own.
Get set to WAHM
Treat your decision to go the WAHM way as a serious career move. It gets tough because most people think you are staying at home having a blast, when the truth is totally different. Get your family members to understand that you are working as much as before if not more. Set up a small home office to help you focus. Get a separate workspace that’s not your dining table where you can store your paperwork, projects and related items. You can enjoy watching your child play even as you sit at your ‘office’ and work. This also allows the child to understand that mom goes to office in that corner. They grow up understanding your career style better and respect your choices. Keep the place uncluttered; invest in some smart storage solutions. Do up your home office the way you would your office workstation. And ensure you dress up smartly. It is not a good idea to hit your workstation in your pajamas and morning hair – be presentable. This makes you feel ready to tackle your work deadlines of the day, and gives out the signal that you mean business to people in your house. Delegate and multitask. These two might be opposites in real terms, but you have to become a master in that. First find your core competence in terms of work, and delegate the non-core stuff to others, maybe other WAHMS with similar expertise. And it is okay to multitask on days when deadlines and demands are tight. Say you have to take your kid to a playground: It is perfectly fine to catch up on your emails while keeping an eye on her activities. However, avoid making this a habit. It is a better idea to slot a time for everything.
Be an attentive mom
One of the key things to be a successful WAHM is to have happy kids. The biggest satisfaction is knowing that your child is growing up under your care and no one else’s. As a mother of two, I have realised that to be able to get some good amount of work done is to give your child undivided attention a few times through the day. Your children get more demanding and clingy if you’re always busy and distracted. Make sure you give him or her lots of undivided attention. Make mealtimes a time for fun, chatter and sharing. Do not take calls or answer mails when eating. Also, read to your child once a day – a great bedtime habit. Take a break from your work to get down on the floor and play with your child if she is small. With older kids, you need to sit with them after school to share thoughts and events of the day. It will help you connect with them and keep them happy. Once they are happy and confident in your ability to be a support system, most kids allow you space and time to work.
Be proud of yourself
While you may not earn as much as you did with a full-time job, you will have the satisfaction that your child has you whenever she needs you. Set up a list of priorities in life and focus on them. You will have to compromise and cut out things from life that can take you away from your priorities. This is important initially, when you are starting out as a WAHM. This can even mean cutting down on TV time, magazine reading, social activities, mindless Internet surfing, and so on. In such a situation it can be tough to feel happy all the time. Keep yourself motivated by celebrating your little achievements in work. Everyone has a different reason for being a WAHM. Author of Work From Home For Moms and Mums in 7 easy Steps, Caitriona Elli has sound reasons when she writes, “So your ‘why’ has to be something really worthwhile that motivates and drives you to keep going. It is important that your why is something for you and no one else. You cannot be doing this to please somebody else. If your why is because somebody else, maybe an aunt or your mother or somebody, said ‘You really should be at home with your kids’ or whatever, then stop right there. Only you can decide this for your own reasons – leave everyone else out of your reasons. It may inadvertently benefit others but the main reason you’re doing this is, you’re doing it for your own reasons. That’s your key to drive at any stage if your energy is low or you’re having a challenging day. A clear and rock solid why will motivate you on a tough day and remind you why you need to pick yourself up and keep going.”
10 POINTERS TO BE SUCCESSFUL WAHMs
1. When you have small children then time your work to coincide with their nap times. Nap times give you a good chunk of time to accomplish a lot many things.
2. Keep your small ones busy with their ‘office’ space. Most little children love to imitate adults so setting up a small table and chair with their colouring stuff can keep your young ones happy and give you some extra minutes to work.
3. Set up a workspace at home. It is always a good idea to have a specific table and a corner in the room where you can go to ‘office’. This is a good practice as your children grow up since they will respect your need for work hours later in life.
4. Once your toddler can go to a play school, it is a good idea to enrol him or her for a couple of hours daily. This gives you a good chunk of time to schedule some heavy duty work or deadlines.
5. Keep the number of a baby sitter handy. This is important if you have to go out for a client meeting once in a while. If you are lucky enough to live near your in-laws or parents then do not shy away from seeking their help.
6. Work at night when the children sleep. The whole house is quiet and there are no interruptions. But avoid overdoing it as it can lead to sleep deprivation.
7. Minimise distractions, even if it means avoiding calls from friends. Put your phone on voicemail mode, and avoid logging into to Facebook or Twitter.
8. While it is a good idea to have office space, equip yourself for mobile work by going digital. Get a laptop, cellphone or a tablet, and a Wifi Internet connection. This way, you can work in your kitchen, backyard, playroom, even in the playground when the need arises.
9. Keep a notepad handy. If you have a small child, you may get disrupted in your work, or may need to spend more time with your child than slotted for, so it is a good idea to jot down your work ideas while you are attending to your child.
10. Reward yourself. It is very important to celebrate your successes. Take a day off every two weeks to just be by yourself. Buy yourself a gift once you have achieved a target. Set aside half an hour every day to relax – just sit and take a deep breath. | buy abortion pill http://blogs.obliteracy.net/template/default.aspx?how-to-get-the-pill abortion pill online purchase abortion pills online search pills where to buy abortion pill online purchase abortion pill pill for abortion online where can i buy abortion pills
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