Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

Have you ever gotten the “work at home mom blues?”

That’s the topic of this week’s feature article in WAHM Tips. Before I wrote this post, though, I wanted to know how common a problem this really is. I know I get a little blue about working at home sometimes, but maybe I was the only one.

Over the weekend, I surveyed some WAHMs and asked them if they ever got down, and if so, why. The majority of respondents (80%) admitted that they do get down once in a while. So, I’m not the only one.

Here are some the things that made them feel a little blue.

- feeling lonely at home
- missing out on fun things like shopping and lunch with like-minded women
- unstable income
- not sure if you’ll be able to pay the bills next month
- lack of a social life other than the internet
- demanding clients
- not enough clients
- things not going according to plan
- feeling overwhelmed with work and housework

I can sympathize with every one of those.

Getting the work at home blues, though, can be more than just a little bit depressing. I know when I’m feeling down, I don’t put everything I should into my business. Which means while I’m feeling for myself, I could be losing out on sales and clients, and other good things.

I’ve been working on avoiding things that get me down in the first place. Here are two tips I wanted to share with you:

Tip #1. Focus first on what really matters. Many of the survey respondents told me they felt better when they remembered why they’re home in the first place – to be with their children. I find I can avoid getting down when I set aside time each morning to focus on my reasons for being at home and for doing what I do. For me, that means having my daily devotion and doing some journaling. Those two activities really help me clear my head of any distractions and negative thinking, and feel peaceful about whatever is ahead.

Tip #2.  Avoid negative people. I’ve found I need to avoid certain people who make me feel less than wonderful about my decision to work at home. For example, I had coffee with a girlfriend last week who has never fully supported my decision to start a home based business. That had been a pretty good day for me. I had gotten a new client, received some fantastic feedback from someone else, and was feeling pretty great about how things were going. But my friend was so critical of what I was up to, I ended up feeling pretty lousy by the time I came home. Sometimes I need to end a client relationship because they’re getting me down. If they’re overly critical of my work (you know the kind – nothing’s ever good enough!) or overly demanding, I just can’t afford to accommodate the negative feelings they send my way. When I avoid negative people, I have more room for the positive stuff.

How do you deal with the work at home blues?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 2:02 am and is filed under Two Tips for Tuesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.