Can You Be A Mompreneur And A Good Parent?
The, I should’ve done this or I should be doing that. It’s the guilt from not finding the balance you hoped for every day.
As a stay at home Mom with a business, I find it hard not to feel guilty when I’m not taking care of one or the other. If I spend a lot of time with my kids, I feel like I’m ignoring my clients. If I’m working on my business, I feel like I should be with my kids.
How can I win? I can’t be everything at once. Either I figure out how to balance both or risk going crazy with guilt.
It was only when I started putting things into perspective that I found relief. Being a Mom these days means wearing a lot of different hats. And you shouldn’t feel guilty about which ones you’re wearing.
Not only did I find a way to feel good about that. I turned my weaknesses into strengths by shifting my perspective and used that to teach my children.
I used to see all the things I should be doing and it stressed me out. That stress transferred to my kids and my business and I wasn’t having much fun at anything. I was focusing too much on the negative instead of the positive.
So rather than trying to be Superwoman, I shifted the way I saw things. I did this by giving myself permission to do only what I could do. Not all the things I couldn’t do. That gave me a way to feel good about what I did accomplish, and not what I didn’t accomplish.
Look at the glass as half full rather than half empty.
Ambitious Moms like us tend to take on a lot. Let go of trying to be perfect and cramming in as much as you can into a day or a week. Give yourself permission to move forward each day a little at a time.
Don’t chose between kids and work.
The idea that we have to choose between being a Mom, entrepreneur, wife and trying to take care of ourselves is old school. We can’t let go of being a Mom to take care of business and we can’t ignore our relationship to be a Mom. And if you don’t take care of yourself, you have nothing left for anybody.
We are all of it. But that doesn’t mean we have to run ourselves down to do it all. Prioritizing your day is key. Plan on where you need to put your focus and give yourself permission to be flexible. Focus on one thing at a time but allow your role to change as it needs to.
The role of a parent is to teach your kids how to be independent, confident contributors to society. Kids do what you do, not what you say. So let them know what you’re doing in your business. Let them see it takes work. And ask them to pitch in and help by doing little things to take care of themselves.
Get it out of your head that you have to be everything to them. By protecting your kids and doing everything for them, you’re teaching them how to be entitled adults. That’s not to say let them suffer. But never feel guilty for teaching them some independence.
It’s not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings. – Ann Landers
It’s not always about them. If you find yourself jumping at every request and feeling bad when you can’t always be there for your kids, ask yourself why.
Animals in nature are parents for a very short time. They feed and protect their young only until they are old enough to do it for themselves. Then they kick them out. Now, there is a time when our kids need us to do things for them. But soon enough, they can learn a lot of skills to care for themselves.
If you do a lot more for your kids than they do for themselves as they get older, that’s because you need them.
They don’t need you. You want them to need you so you can feel special.
Take stock of all the things you do for them over a day or a week and ask yourself how many things they could be doing themselves.
Being a Mompreneur is as challenging as it is rewarding. But you can take on all of it if you make a minor shift in your mindset. We get stressed out when our reality doesn’t meet our expectations. Change your expectations and you can get rid of the stress.
That doesn’t mean lower the bar or dream smaller.
But be flexible on how you get there. Then you can have it all.
Do you find it hard to juggle work and kids? Share some tricks, tips or insights below and tell me how you manage to keep a life for yourself, your family and your business!