Hi Christine, glad to be a member of this group. My best tip to work successfully from home? Daycare!

I'm half kidding.. but really, my daughter is in daycare, which I believe is beneficial to both her and myself. I work from home full time as a software programmer (IM biz in the evenings).

Are males allowed to join this group? Because I have something to share with Parents who want to Work at Home. For beginners - just click on my username and you will see a link to my signature file. Check it out for beginners.

Hi everyone,

I'm Angela. I'm a home schooling mom to my three kids (ages 10, 5,and 3) by day and wife and marketer by night.

Karen - I actually have a 4 and 2 year old I babysit a few days a week (part time daycare). The 4 year old will be going to school this year but I'll still have the 2 year old. I'll be doing beginning school stuff with her too. Their mom pays me very well so I would say I work successfully from home.

Angela

Hi Karen!

Love your tip, and I totally agree! I have two kids now (an 8 year old boy and a 1 year old girl, who I'm pretty sure is possessed by the devil) and I catch myself dreaming about daycare sometimes. I could get SO much more done that way.

Angela, WOW, you have a lot on your plate! Are you available to take on a couple more kids? Yes?! Be there in 10 minutes!

Oh yeah, and guys are totally allowed in. But as long as they aren't promoting anything scammy or spammy or dirty. There's lots of other places for that stuff.

Christine,

Send your kids on over! Since it's now 10:20 pm, they should be sleeping so it'll work out great! Actually, I have found that it's easier when there are a few more kids around. They play with each other instead of harassing me all the time. Having rest time and play time is about the only way I'm able to get anything accomplished. I have to admit there are days when I think I might lose any sanity I have left!

Angela

Great group idea! It's nice to talk to others who have the same kind of issues to try working around. I have the hardest time with guilt! I just feel sometimes like I am not paying enough attention to my kids because I am working while they play around me. Today I ended up taking them to the park for the afternoon because I felt like I wasn't doing enough, even though I had a ton of articles to finish writing.

Oh well, it will be a late night for me, but we had such a fun day that it was worth it!

Marie

Hi Marie,
Just this one simply reply cannot convey what I want to say fully, but I felt at least I wanted to try. Do you know how many mothers deal with guilt every single day? I shouldn't just say mothers either, but I've found that emotion to be more common in females.

My biggest problem I deal with in many aspects of my life, my daughter Sarah being the biggest, is GUILT. It's so difficult to not feel guilty.

I'd love to delve more into the topic, and learn how to deal with it better.

Karen

Lakeview - I homeschooled for a few years and that was a tough time - working and being a teacher AND a mom all at the same time. My sons are in regular school now and it's a lot easier but I still juggle mothering my daughter (age 4) with work. Wouldn't tarde it for the world!

Hi, just finally getting around to updating my info in the new forum and excited to see so many new options. I'm a work at home mom of four kids under the age of 8 and definitely agree with the post about dreaming about daycare thinking about how much more I could get done if I had a chunk of time but then again, I know they are small for only so long so I hope to make the most of it.

Looking forward to being part of this group and hopefully learning a new trick or two from each other.

Tiffany,

There are days when I think about enrolling them in school, like when we haven't yet completed everything scheduled, the house is a mess, laundry still needs to be done and now it's time to start dinner and then I still have a full evening of writing, etc to look forward to working on.

Marie and Karen,

I think the guilt we mothers feel stems from the idea that we need to be able to do it all. I struggle with this so much in thinking that I need to be the best wife and mom, teacher, housekeeper, IMer, etc. I feel like I have failed for the day if we didn't cover all of our school work, the house isn't as clean as it could be and I didn't work on my business very much.

I have been trying to remember the kids are growing up (fast!) and it won't be long before they are out of the house. My house doesn't need to look like a model home. We are a family of five with two dogs so of course it's going to look like we live here! And if I only got to work for 30 minutes today, so be it. I'm 30 minutes further along than I was before.

I guess I'm trying to say (in a long winded way) that I'm trying to put things into a better perspective. For me, my family must come first and eventually, everything else will hopefully fall into place. Now, if I could just figure out how to not stress about it so much!

Angela