But, I wouldn’t trade it for the world!
I thought about this post for a long time now and what exactly I wanted to say. I really just wanted to pump up all of the other mom’s out there who are rocking out a job and motherhood too! I want to encourage you to stick with your passion and continue your dream of owning your own business. There is a lot of value in being a business woman and a mom at the same time.
Balancing all the roles has been hard and comes with a ton of guilt. I often feel like I am not giving my best to everything. But when I take a step back and look closely at what I am doing I realize that I am actually giving my son the greatest gift. I am showing him the value of working hard for what you want. I am also showing him a side of me that he might not otherwise get to see. I am passionate about life and photography. Noah gets to see that first hand and as he gets older he will learn more about that side of me. It could potentially be inspiring to him in his own life. He might also be more willing to take risks for the things he wants in life because he has seen me do! (and also he sees his father work hard and take chances on his dreams too!)
If you are out there feeling guilty because you are sacrificing time with your child or children because of living out a dream of yours. I won’t tell you to stop feeling guilty. It’s just going to happen. I feel guilt everyday. But what I would like to say is to try and refocus on all the positivity that can come from you having your own business, passion, and desires. List out all the ways you can see how it brings value into your child’s life. There is value! It just takes a minute to see it.
Here is my “value” list:
- I am living out two passions in my life: Motherhood and Business Owner.
- I am modeling what a good work ethic looks like.
- I am teaching my son to go after the things you want in life.
- I am modeling what commitment and time management looks like.
- This is MY business. I dictate what I want for it and from it. The blessing is that I can call in sick when I need to .. most importantly when my son needs me to! I am still able to be 100% mom when I need and want to be.
- I am keeping my sense of self in tact. I often think about the time when Noah will start to go out with friends, go away on vacation with friends, start to drive, go away to college. Simply put, he will not be doing as much with me. When that time comes, I will not be sitting on the couch wondering what to do! I will have my interests, hobbies, and business to continue with.
My best example for the last bullet point is happening right now in my life. Noah is getting ready to start kindergarten. Everyone has been so curious to know what am I going to do with myself when this happens! Well after the obvious, cry and cry some more, I am going to focus on my business. I will get a few more hours of work in each day and I will truly love it. I love my job. The best part is that I will be able to see him off to school, I will be readily available if I need to get him early from school, and I will be home when he gets home! I can be present for after school snack time, play time, and homework time.
I would like to end with the fact that it’s not always so perfect. There are times when I just have to work on a weekend or a weeknight, for whatever reason, it happens. Yes, I allow it to happen, but I try my absolute best to balance how many times it happens. This is usually when the mom guilt takes over in full effect. Let’s take the picture above for example. That picture WAS SO NOT STAGED. What happened was that I needed a few pictures to update my blog. I called a friend last minute and all we could work out was a time when I was going to have Noah. I knew we wouldn’t be more than an hour. So I packed the iPad, snacks, and we made it happen. We were nearing the end of the shoot when Noah decided he was ready to go. He made it clear he was ready by sitting next to me and not moving! We captured that very moment and voila. What you are seeing is the truth of balancing being a business owner and a mom. It can be crazy.
I must remind myself that for me these times aren’t often. I must remind myself that it could be way worse and that I have a huge list of awesome reasons to continue owning my business while being a mom too!!
Make your list. Pull it out when you need the reminder!
You are awesome. You are a mom and a business owner. How cool is that?!
