WAHM's Diary: Downsides of a WAHM

It has been more than a year when I made a final decision to leave my career as a call center agent in a major BPO company and started to work as a homebased freelancer. The excitement of being a WAHM has always been overflowing because I can get to experience the luxury of working at home at a flexible time and in my most convenience without taking kids for granted or anything at home. Until today, I feel so blessed to have a stable job with a very  reliable employer whom I actually see myself still working for on the coming years ahead. I really love my job.

However, alongside the satisfaction,  always comes a negative bell.

There are also downsides which I would like to share with you.



Problem:
Time Management
This has become my ultimate problem (not that much now actually). What made it very challenging is I am breastfeeding my youngest and he always has this baby mood swings and tantrums only a mother's touch could comfort. And it always has to happen when I am already in the middle of being too busy with work.

How I deal:
It was crazy but I managed to overcome by the help of my husband and housemates. I know I can never make it alone dealing with the kids while maintaining home and working full time. I am no wonder woman although I remained resolute at my best. When no help is around, I put a playing mat beside my work station, then I let my kids play. That way, I can keep my eye on everything they do, I can do my work while keeping them entertained.

Problem:
Less time for myself.
From grooming myself to health related factors. Sometimes, I tend to eat late because I am rushing just to meet my deadline. I also forget to take food supplements everyday maybe because my mind is too bombarded. Aside from that, less time of sleep has become my routine. I can't even stay asleep for a straight six hours. It's hard to adjust my body clock since I got used to staying up late and for longer hours. Staying up late also makes me breakout alot.

How I deal:
My husband makes a good alarm and reminder when I need to take food supplements. About the number of hours I sleep, I can't do anything but to stick to that. I needed to work and I need to take care of my family, so less time of sleep is something I need to live with for as long as I could, I guess that's really part of parenting. Hubby also gets less sleep like I do. In regards of my late meals, I just try to eat more to compensate my late and skipped meals, haha. I am not sure if that could count.  My breakouts are really bad, so I am trying different acne products to clear up my skin. I also make sure to maintain clean face.

Problem:
Less social life.
It's expected. As a freelancer, I am awake almost 24 hours. I do 4 different jobs online in a day occasionally (with deadlines) and its really impossible to insert a meet up with friends into orbit.

How I deal:
I catch up with friends through Facebook. They know how it is to be busy since most of my friends were also moms like me. 

Problem:
People misinterpret my work.
Some people but not too many in the neighborhood were unaware of the online jobs, like what I do. It might because they were not knowledgeable enough to using internet yet. Or some maybe its just their nature to think negative things and accuse people of doing malicious things on the internet. I heard people say I just videochat/cybersex with foreign men and they send me money. Some say I work as scammer because they learned from tv news scammers work through computers. They don't understand when I tell them I work as a Virtual Assistant, Freelancer, and blogger. 


How I deal:
Brush it off. It's not my job to explain myself to anybody. I work for my family and for myself. I guess nothing else matters as long as my loved ones know I don't do anything unethical. Explaining myself won't cut it and won't make any difference and won't constitute to anything good because that's their nature, judge people.  I told myself they should fly to the planet where they belong. They think cybersex is the only way on how someone can make a living out of internet and according to them chatting with foreigners can make a good money. Hahah really..uhm never tried that yet.

These are just some of the numerous problems I have encountered all through out my work at home venture. Although I have previous few people who knows my nature of work, there are still clueless on what I do. I will try to write part 2 of this post maybe this month or next month. It might seems complicated for a mom to work at the same time while being there whenever my children needs me. It's just how you handle it. Everything was a challenge eversince I started, I just want this career badly. 

For mommies like me who like to take the transition as well from office based to homebased, I hope this post somehow helps. 

Motherhood takes a lot of sacrifices but it is rewarding most specially when you are able to provide everything that your family needs from small to big things.



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