Work At Home Mom - Why Become One?

Why would anyone want to become a work at home mom? Every person has their own WHY about a lot of things in life. I personally became a work at home mom because I wanted to be able to raise my children.

I came from a family of 9 brothers. I was the only girl, the oldest and I was adopted at the age of 4. At the time there were already five boys in the house, my newly adopted mom and dad and my grandmother and aunt who were also being taken care of by my adoptive parents. My own adoptive mom was a work at home mom, but not in the sense you are probably thinking. She didn't have a business. No. She ran a company! The Wallace family company. She was the CEO and she ran the show.

By the time I left home to go to college at age 18, I knew one thing for sure. I did NOT want to have children. Surprised? Well, being the oldest brought many adult responsibilities and with that came cooking dinners, ironing clothing, changing diapers (lots of them), babysitting and more babysitting, washing dishes, going shopping, driving everyone to swim practice and school events, helping with homework, and much much more. I was tired of being a work at home mom junior.

I did get a job as a lifeguard when I was 15, but I still had most of the same responsibilities plus the job.

It's funny though how things change. I did get married right out of college to my high school sweetheart. I graduated with a Bachelors degree in teaching health and physical education. I wanted to be a swim coach and teach health. However, when I graduated there were very few teaching jobs in Western PA so I followed the advice of my college counselor, spent a lot more money and went on to get my Masters degree.

I did get my degree and did graduate with honors and was ready to train the next olympic swimmer, but, you guessed it. No jobs. There were a few jobs at the time but the catch 22 was that they were only allowed to hire graduates with Bachelor's degrees and even though I volunteered to take a job with the same pay as those with a Bachelor's degree, they told me that wasn't allowed.

Here I was. I had my Masters degree and no way to put it to use. I had taken so many pre-med courses that I contemplated going into physical therapy or some other health related field. I had worked three jobs to put myself through college and I wasn't so sure I wanted to start all over again.

Someone I knew introduced me to the field of headhunting aka executive recruiter, executive search consultant. I learned how to recruit IT (information technology) candidates and computer programmers. That was some experience! I won't say exactly what I thought about that field because I don't want to offend any really young, innocent people who are reading this article, but suffice it to say, I didn't think very highly of all of the people changing jobs every 6 months just for the money.

It didn't take me long to hate what I was doing and to realize that my boss was highly unethical. I had the potential to make great money but I lasted only a short time.

A headhunting position opened up with a worldwide, reputable, major recruiting firm right in my own backyard, Pittsburgh, PA. It was kind of a fun interview. I was the first woman they had ever considered so I had to go through about seven interviews before they decided I would do no harm to their company.

I liked my job and I did well at it. I liked my immediate boss. I liked my salary. In fact, I liked a lot of things about my job. But something happened.

One day when I was working out at the health club, my back started hurting. I went to the doctor's to see what was wrong. I thought I had strained something and being a very active, fit, work out nut, that was pretty distressing at the time. The doctor took lots of x-rays. He came back with the news. You have a backache, not because you have strained anything or broken anything, but because. . . You are pregnant! Congratulations!

Wow. What a surprise. I was 32 and nearing that "dangerous age" where women should not have children (back in the day). My first thoughts? There goes my figure. My second thought? I'm going to have a baby!

An interesting thing then happened to my attitude about having children. It was a surprise to me, but I became very excited about having my first child!

The first eight months came and went pretty quickly. I was one of the fortunate ones who didn't have morning sickness. I sure did have backaches and you would have thought I was a beer drinker with the amount of belching that I did. I still got up and drove from the suburbs in the horrendous parkway traffic every day until one day, I wasn't feeling very well.

I made a visit to the doctor for my routine check up when he told me that I was not going back to work. In fact, he ordered me to not go back to work. None of my "but but buts" made any difference to him. I had developed toxemia and for those of you who don't know what that is, the simple explanation is, I needed to stay off my feet and rest until the baby was delivered. Isn't it interesting how your life can just change overnight?

I did as I was told. While I was lying around, I trained my replacement. I had been on my job for five years. I am usually good at being prepared so I decided to register with a group of independent researchers just in case I wanted to do some work from home. I knew I didn't want to though because I was ready to be a stay at home mom.

Enter Sara, 6 pounds, 7 ounces, emergency C-section, breach, and screaming at the top of her lungs, covered in what looked like slime (not the official terminology), but still, cute as a button. Looked just like me (at least I thought so). All of that lying around and resting had sure paid off. I was now an official stay at home mom. What a blessing!

I was so excited. I was a great stay at home mom. Every single day for almost 9 months I wrote an entry into a diary about my beautiful little girl. I was so absolutely in love (for the second time) that I just had to put it in words so she could have it when she became a mom herself. We did everything together. Her closet was lined with the cutest baby dresses. Her bedroom was immaculate. My house was immaculate. My husband was off to work like the good husband he was. I had the best life ever. My new career as a stay at home mom was finally my dream come true.

I'll never forget it. December, 1986 the day before Christmas. Our lives were about to be transformed once again. My husband lost his job, his very lucrative job that allowed me to have the dream job of my life. I was about to trade the role of stay at home mom and become a work at home mom. I couldn't go back to my old job. I had trained my replacement. Besides, I couldn't even envision leaving my little one at home, alone, with my husband.

I was angry that I couldn't have my way any longer. My husband would become a stay at home dad, at least for a season. I would still be at home, but as I sat in my office immediately on the floor below, I could hear my baby crying and laughing and playing and it broke my heart. I was mad mad mad. I kept asking God WHY? It wasn't fair. I was supposed to be taking care of my little girl but now I had to become the breadwinner.

After crying for several weeks, I finally accepted the fact that I needed to be a work at home mom. It was better than the alternatives of leaving Sara behind.

I began to accept my new role and started returning phone calls from clients who were seeking my headhunting experience. I believe things happen for a reason, and although I really didn't like what was happening, I finally conceded that there must be something to this.

I was blessed to have several large clients who provided me with so much work that eventually I had a staff of four. I was able to hire family and friends and train them to become proficient headhunters. Together we served our clients well. I would work hard and then get to visit Sara because she was right upstairs. I was resolved to be the best work at home mom headhunter I could be and still continue to be the best stay at home mom I could be.

Along came George. George had the fullest head of pitch black hair I had ever seen. He was my natural baby. That didn't happen by my choice. The doctor's just conveniently kept putting off giving me anything because of a medical condition that I had. They kept telling me they would be right back. The next time they came back, I had a beautiful baby boy.

Now that I was more of a work at home mom then a stay at home mom, I didn't have time to write in a diary for George. I didn't have time to hang up his cute little baby clothes. I didn't have time to read to him as often as I had read to my daughter. I had to learn how to divide my time.

Life became more stressful as my daughter developed asthma that was so severe that it oftentimes required hospitalization. I would spend night after night in the hospital and still have to go home to work in the morning. That went on for many years, all the way into her teens. Had I not been a work at home mom, I would not have had the benefit of creating my own hours and working around situations like this without being fired from my job.

I had the flexibility I needed to be both a mother and a working mom. I was so grateful and so blessed and I knew it.

Things seemed to be moving right along and in the right direction.

Marriage always has it's ups and downs. It doesn't always work out the way it's intended to. He didn't want to be married any longer after 26 years of being together. (21 years of marriage). I didn't understand it. I didn't want to accept it but I had no choice in the matter. I was now a single, stay at home, work at home, mom.

I became an expert juggler.

We divorced. We both moved. The kids went with me and we moved to the beautiful Laurel Mountains of Pennsylvania. As the kids grew, I continued to work as a headhunter, having some down times as well as good times. I was able to make a full time income working part-time and I was still very blessed to be able to take care of my children's needs. I became a Den Leader for the Boy Scouts (there was always a shortage of men). I took my daughter to cheerleading and dance and when she had to go to the hospital, I was able to be there most of the nights. My son would stay with his grandma or friends. Life was getting back on track again.

I continued to be a work at home mom and I still am today. The field of headhunting tends to fluctuate from good times to bad times and back again to good times. It cycles. It is a rewarding career, a high earnings career, more of an equal opportunity career for women, but it is also very stressful and very infrequently do you get any pats on the back for the work you have done.

Being an entrepreneur isn't always the easiest choice, but it provides you with an interesting life.

I began to read about "multiple streams of income". As a result, I decided that I wanted to investigate other options besides headhunting. I had been in the field since 1980 and was yearning to learn something new.

Enter Ebay - a great business for the work at home mom.

Enter Travel Club Membership - another wonderful business for the work at home mom.

Building websites and writing blogs to earn money from Adsense - a great way for the stay at home mom to earn a little (or a lot) of extra income.

Being a work at home mom allows me to explore an unlimited number of options. Although my children are grown now (my son is 19 and my daughter is married at age 23 with two gorgeous children, my granddaughters. (not to brag too loudly of course), I still can make the time to help them out when needed. I still have some control over last minute emergencies and doctor's appointments, school plays for my granddaughter and of course, babysitting.

I will be writing more information about specifics for each of these work at home businesses in other hubs.

My entrepreneurial days are only beginning. I am hoping to always be able to be a work at home mom. It is rewarding in so many ways. It does take a certain type of person to be able to be disciplined enough to work at home and not everyone is cut out to work at home full time.

Anyone though, can build a small business on the side that brings in a little bit of extra income. If you have children and you want to watch them grow, start planning your part-time work at home business. Perhaps some day it will become a full time work at home venture for you.

Please Watch for more specific details on the topics I mentioned in Chapter 12 in other hub entries to come.