Turn off your Business After School until Bedtime !
My business shuts down from 3:45pm until 9:45pm everyday. I was reminded of this promise and pledge I made when I didn't honor it this week. I was on the phone with Yahoo Tech Support about a web-site issue for one of my merchant sites. I was on this phone call for about 45 minutes from 4:45-5:30pm. This was a bad idea. I should have made this call after the kids were in bed. I did not honor my promise to perserve the 3:45pm to 9:45pm time and it made for a rough evening in our house... rushing to do dinner... rushing to do after school activities.... not even being present when they got home from school to ask them about their day.
If you are a mother entrepreneur that has the good fortune of being home when your kids get home from school - STOP EVERYTHING - and be there for them. Help them unload those heavy backpacks and often heavy thoughts and feelings from the day. Remember everything is larger than life to them and something that happened on the playground often overshadows anything they learned academically in school that day.
You need to be there and be present to help them unload and download their day with you. We take off the backpacks and take their lunchboxes into the kitchen and empty them out and wipe them out and grab a snack. Sometimes we eat that snack at the kitchen table or we go to the couch and chill out and watch some mindless tv for a half hour. I let them choose whatever they want to decompress. So, I sit there and watch SpongeBob or Pokemon or Miss Spider with them.
I have the kids do their homework at the kitchen table while I prepare dinner. This way I can be there to answer any questions, look over their homework, and just hang out with them. I know there is all this talk of quality time vs. quantity time. I believe in lots of quality time... quality face time... many hours where they see my face vs. the computer face, the tv face, the gameboy face. I could plug them in after school while i prep dinner, do laundry, etc... but I chose to be present and have face time with them.
When I coach other mom business owners, I always remind them that family has to come first ! I do understand that you may go away for an evening each week or a weekend each month for your business. However, you need to be present and make sure that your family has priority over your business on a day-to-day basis.
Showing posts with label Family Balance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family Balance. Show all posts
Monday, August 23, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
WAHM? Mom Enterepreneur? Why do you have business? Your reason will help with your priorities.
WAHM, Work at Home Mom, Mompreneur, Mom Entrepreneur, Mother Entrepreneur?
Why do you have a business & what does your business money go towards?
1. Fun/Hobby
2. Some of Your Own Spending Money
3. Contribute to your Household Bills
I recently spoke to a group of mom business owners and brought up this topic. We were discussing priorities and how much time to spend on our businesses and family balance.
I suggested that we start with the questions "Why do you have a business?" and "Where does that money go?". I block off from 4pm-10pm as strictly "no business, no computers, no phone calls"on school nights. However, recently I have had some client deadlines that were unavoidable during this time and my family was a wreck. So, I was questioning whether I could have put off that client work.
I met with my family and discussed that while it is my goal not work on school night between 4pm-10pm, there will be times that it is unavoidable. The reason is that this money started as my spending fun money and it moved to providing our family with extras like family vacations and weekend trips and paying for birthday and christmas presents.
My husband is a teacher and I am a stay at home and work at home mom and we have 3 kids. Our budget is tight, but can cover the bills. Our budget does not cover extras like dance lessons, swimming lessons, summer swim pass to pools around town, birthday parties, etc. So, now we have come to rely on this money to enhance our lives and this sometimes means that I have to conduct business after school.
I will do better and letting them know in advance if I can when this happens. I also have been trading babysitting with a like minded work at home mom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We both have active toddlers that are 17 months old and only 1 week apart in age so I can get things done during the daylight hours, instead of late night hours like now (1:53am).
So, knowing the reasons why you are making this money helps decide if you can re-schedule that work or client call and how to make decisions about family balance. If you are dependent on your paycheck then sometimes family will have to come 2nd. I know we always want family to come first and that is a great goal to strive for, however, sometimes reality alters that !
Why do you have a business & what does your business money go towards?
1. Fun/Hobby
2. Some of Your Own Spending Money
3. Contribute to your Household Bills
I recently spoke to a group of mom business owners and brought up this topic. We were discussing priorities and how much time to spend on our businesses and family balance.
I suggested that we start with the questions "Why do you have a business?" and "Where does that money go?". I block off from 4pm-10pm as strictly "no business, no computers, no phone calls"on school nights. However, recently I have had some client deadlines that were unavoidable during this time and my family was a wreck. So, I was questioning whether I could have put off that client work.
I met with my family and discussed that while it is my goal not work on school night between 4pm-10pm, there will be times that it is unavoidable. The reason is that this money started as my spending fun money and it moved to providing our family with extras like family vacations and weekend trips and paying for birthday and christmas presents.
My husband is a teacher and I am a stay at home and work at home mom and we have 3 kids. Our budget is tight, but can cover the bills. Our budget does not cover extras like dance lessons, swimming lessons, summer swim pass to pools around town, birthday parties, etc. So, now we have come to rely on this money to enhance our lives and this sometimes means that I have to conduct business after school.
I will do better and letting them know in advance if I can when this happens. I also have been trading babysitting with a like minded work at home mom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We both have active toddlers that are 17 months old and only 1 week apart in age so I can get things done during the daylight hours, instead of late night hours like now (1:53am).
So, knowing the reasons why you are making this money helps decide if you can re-schedule that work or client call and how to make decisions about family balance. If you are dependent on your paycheck then sometimes family will have to come 2nd. I know we always want family to come first and that is a great goal to strive for, however, sometimes reality alters that !
Monday, June 14, 2010
Turn off your business on Fridays - Institute a Friday Family Fun Night !
Friday Family Fun Nights !
Turn off your business on Fridays ! I don't even log into my e-mails or work on any business Friday nights - even after the kids go to bed. We stay up late for Family Fun and I go to bed when they go to bed this one night of the week.
Here's some of what we do for Lierman Family Friday Fun Nights:
- Play boardgames like: Checkers, Chess, and Sorry
- Play games like: Jenga, BattleShip, and Yahtzee
- Play wii games like: Wii Sports, Tony Hawk Downhill Jam, and Mario Kart
- Food and Snacks include: Pizza, Pop, Popcorn, Chocolate Bars, and Gummy Bears
- PJs and MovieTime round out the night ! We all get our pjs on and hunker down on the couches and sleeping bags and watch a fun family movie like: Over the Hedge, The Incredibles, or Spy Kids.
Some of the benefits of a Family Fun Night:
Laughter
"Games offer a fresh experience every time you play, providing new ways to have fun and laugh together. Some games, such as CRANIUM and OPERATION, are developed with giggles in mind and would be a great choice on nights when everyone needs a good laugh."
Family Bonding
"Game play allows your kids to learn from you and from each other. It encourages a sense of connectedness and respect among family members."
Learning
"Games can be a subtle learning tool. For instance, CLUE is good for learning deductive reasoning. MONOPOLY is ideal for teaching beginning budget skills and YAHTZEE provides a fun way to teach simple addition and multiplication."
Life Skills
"Games teach kids important life skills such as patience, concentration, teamwork and perseverance. By taking turns, following rules and even losing a game, kids learn skills that they can apply at school and in the home."
Once a month we invite another family over that has kids and we ask them to bring their pjs and sleeping bags and get ready for lots of family fun. Our kids come home thrilled and excited on Friday nights. Institute a Friday Family Fun Night in your house this week ! Make it one of your family traditions.
SOURCE: http://www.hasbro.com/familygamenight/en_US/, ideas, suggestions, and coupons for your family game night.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Send Your Kids Outside for 1 "Green Hour" a Day !
Send kids outside to get close to nature and appreciate the world around them. Remember when we were kids. We ran in from school, grabbed a snack, and then ran back outside to play until our moms called us for dinnertime.
The National Wildlife Federation recommends that parents give their kids a "Green Hour" every day, a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. This can take place in a garden, a backyard, the park down the street, or any place that provides safe and accessible green spaces where children can learn and play.
Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, refers to this nature-child disconnect as "nature deficit disorder." One of the primary symptoms is the replacement of the green space by the screen space as the occupier of children's free time. Indeed, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found that the average American child spends 44 hours per week (more than 6 hours a day!) staring at some kind of electronic screen.
Studies have linked excessive television viewing to obesity, violence, and even lower intelligence in kids. Now, a growing wave of research indicates that children who spend time outdoors are healthier, overall, than their indoor counterparts.
Children who regularly spend unstructured time outside:
- Play more creatively
- Have lower stress levels
- Have more active imaginations
- Become fitter and leaner
- Develop stronger immune systems
- Experience fewer symptoms of ADD and ADHD
- Have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment
Turn off that television, computer, video games and kick the kids outside until dinner to run around, get some fresh air, soak up some vitamin d, and have some good old-fashioned outdoor
fun !
SOURCE: http://www.greenhour.org/, http://www.moregreenmorelife.blogspot.com/
The National Wildlife Federation recommends that parents give their kids a "Green Hour" every day, a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. This can take place in a garden, a backyard, the park down the street, or any place that provides safe and accessible green spaces where children can learn and play.
Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, refers to this nature-child disconnect as "nature deficit disorder." One of the primary symptoms is the replacement of the green space by the screen space as the occupier of children's free time. Indeed, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found that the average American child spends 44 hours per week (more than 6 hours a day!) staring at some kind of electronic screen.
Studies have linked excessive television viewing to obesity, violence, and even lower intelligence in kids. Now, a growing wave of research indicates that children who spend time outdoors are healthier, overall, than their indoor counterparts.
Children who regularly spend unstructured time outside:
- Play more creatively
- Have lower stress levels
- Have more active imaginations
- Become fitter and leaner
- Develop stronger immune systems
- Experience fewer symptoms of ADD and ADHD
- Have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment
Turn off that television, computer, video games and kick the kids outside until dinner to run around, get some fresh air, soak up some vitamin d, and have some good old-fashioned outdoor
fun !
SOURCE: http://www.greenhour.org/, http://www.moregreenmorelife.blogspot.com/
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