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When parents of young families make the decision to work at home, they do so generally because they want to enhance their family life -- to give themselves more time to spend with their young children, and to insure the quality of their child's early upbringing. But without a good plan for their new enterprise, this noble idea can turn into a home nightmare.
It goes without saying that first and foremost you need to ask yourself the important questions -- "Can our family afford for me to stay at home and try to start a business?" "Suppose it takes a while -- 6 months, a year, 2 years -- for the business to get going? Do we have enough resources to wait it out?"
Assuming that you've already looked into all those obvious questions, you're not done yet. There's so much more to working at home when you have a young family.
As you plan your home business, you need to determine exactly what role your family will play in your business, and how you want your own position as parent to interact with your position as business owner. The two don't always co-exist successfully -- but they can if you prepare well.
Consider whether or not the family CAN logically have a role in your chosen business. If you're an online retailer of your own merchandise, you may well be able to integrate your childen into your family business. They can help pack up orders or help count inventory, for instance. If your retail shop is offline, they can help with little housekeeping chores as well. But if you design websites for a living or tele-commute for your previous employer, you may have a little more difficulty in finding a place in the business for your 6-year-old; and harder still working on deadline projects for your old firm, while trying to rock a fussy baby.
In planning a business that will be full-time work at home, if you don't find a way to incorporate quality parenting time into the business day, you'll soon find yourself feeling like a failure in both roles. If you hear yourself constantly saying to your child, "Go play -- Mommy has work to do" or needing to explain to clients on a regular basis, "I'm going to get to that as soon as possible, but my child has day camp every day this week, and I have to drive." If so, you're not getting or giving what is needed in either place. It's a signal -- not a signal to give up -- but to prioritize and re-organize. It may mean you need to change your work hours or work habits, or work part-time only. It might be a good time to join a car pool for kids' activities, or schedule a one day-a-week play day exchange so you'll always have one free day for big projects, and so will other parents in the group.
A home business isn't a total answer to the quality child-care dilemma . But it is one of the better options if you make a good plan/schedule, and stick to it. Enlist the help of your spouse to take over evening child care so you can work a few hours without interruption. Get older children involved in the business if possible, And don't forget to save a day every week for the whole family to play together. Your children only get one childhood. Make it special.
For every thing there is a season.
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