WAHMs

TheEditor

I am a freelance editor who works from home.  DH also self-employed and works from home.  I am finding it impossible to get work done and am entirely frustrated about it.   I know some PPD is contributing to my agitation, but I am totally overwhelmed by trying to manage work, LO, and home responsibilities.  I'm to the point where I'm really not enjoying motherhood at all.  Any other WAHMs out there who are struggling? 

name1109

I worked from home since June last year....Personally I found being home we just moved in June particularly isolating. Our little girl was born Christmas day. I love her to pieces. I started my 9 weeks off after her birth and found around week 3 that PPD hit. I am not sure if this applies to you but I have found being at home with her 24/7 to be personally difficult. She is an amazingly awesome girl but I miss the stimulation of work. If I continue to stay at home I will probably put her in daycare so I can focus. This might sound awful but if I dont have sanity how can I bring happiness to our home. I thoroughly enjoy working. My boss two levels above me mother of 2 said two things I believe to be true:

1. With regards to spending time with your children, it's quality not quantity that counts.

2. No woman should be making business decisions until 3 months after baby.

I think that PPD can be rough. For me the isolation, sense of cabin fever and inability to do much around the house have been a source of difficulty.

ddub09

I think if you need to work full-time, regular business hours you might need to look into putting the baby in day care or getting a sitter. You will get nothing done as the baby gets older. I work from home part time and can set my own schedule so I can work during naps, when the kids go to bed or weekends. If I didn't haave that flexibility I would need to find another solution. I have found that working from home while caring for children can be isolating at times so I make sure we get out an about in the mornings so I'm not climbing the walls!

TheEditor

I'll likely need to switch careers come fall.  It's just tough now because I wasn't even able to give myself 12 weeks of maternity leave before needing to pick up projects again.  Our income is limited as it is, so foregoing projects is not an option.  I just never realized exactly how tough it would be.  My DH is also completely stressed out, so we're really battling.  Thanks for sharing your views, too.

chrisngeri

Totally struggling and I'm not even working-working again yet - just trying to complete my postgrad thesis with an early April deadline to meet. *freak out*

I have a sitter help me half the day, and I STILL can't find enough hours in a day to think straight and work straight and enough quiet time to write. The most I can squeeze in is about half an hour to an hour a day between all the pumping and breastfeeding and checking in on LO and the sitter in the next room whenever I hear LO calling (sitter can't always read LO's cues well enough at 6 weeks...)

I tried writing at night instead, totally bombed not getting atleast 5 hours shut-eye made me a complete wreck and I swear my milk production went down.

I think WAHMs need as much help as they can from the dads, and hopefully things will smoothen out after 6 months? I hear from friends though that once the terrible twos come, it gets difficult again though...