Stay at home mom, or successful Business woman? How to enjly both!

I believe that I’ve been very lucky since I was able to raise my two children on my own. I have many friends and relatives who left their children in day-care centres before their sixth month! Those parents didn’t see the first steps of their children, nor did they hear their first words. They didn’t want it — they hated it — but they were desperate, as they falsely believed that they had no other choice.

The truth is, there are always choices, and not only two. Embracing your noble causes: To work, not only for money but also for personal expression and expansion and at the same time to raise your children and to have a proper personal life, is not something impossible. I want to give you hope and prove you that inspiration, contrivance, focus, action, and persistence will defiantly lead you to the life of your dreams.

The first thing you need to do is to brainstorm all your possibilities.

Here is how:

1. Take a new notebook only for this exercise and entitle it “My Choices, Needs, and Wants.”
2. Write the questions below, and leave at least three blank pages between them.
   • What jobs have I been doing since I graduated?
   • What do I love doing?
   • What do people tell me I am good at?
   • What do I value most in life?
   • How would I want my life to be in 1 year from now?
3. Keep the notebook handy and whenever an idea comes, write it down. Set aside some time every morning to write at least three things – ideas for each question.
4. At the end of the week, read all the things you have written down and see how can you combine everything in such a way that you move on with your personal and professional life totally satisfied, without painful compromises.
5. Every day for the next four days do the same as above, read everything that is written, and write down ideas on how to combine everything in the most natural and harmonious way.

I promise you, within ten days the most, you will have come up with so many choices that you will be amazed. Then, listen to your intuition and your logic and decide how to move on. But until then,

Let me give you five cool suggestions on what you can do if you want to keep on working to receive both money and fulfillment and at the same time  do your best to be present raising your kids:

• Start your own home business, based on the profession you are already doing, on the things you enjoy doing and most importantly on the values you preserve.
• Arrange with your employer to keep your job but to work from home through the internet, and if needed to go to the office only once or twice per week.
• Cooperate with corporations who want to work with freelancers
• Start for a while your HBB part time until you make sure it is worthy to leave your day job
• If you don’t want to stay all the day at home, take your laptop and your kids and go to a Coffee shop with playground (there are many where they also offer professional child care),  Such places are great for meetings with clients as well. I tell you because I have done it and it works.

…It does work. You Do have a choice.

I was working for big advertising companies, and I loved the corporate experience and the status I had. I also loved the money I was earning. But… Things would change completely when I got pregnant with my first child. You see, I had really serious pregnancy complications, and I was not allowed leave my home. I had to stay lying in bed for about six months. I made arrangements with the people I was cooperating, and I started working from home, through the internet, with my laptop on a coffee table. That year, I had the biggest income since I graduated from College… and I never looked back. I turned my health problem into bliss for both my children and me because there is nothing greater than raising your children by yourself… And there is nothing more fulfilling than expressing yourself and earning your living (and a little more) from your expertise and art.

We all have multiple choices, and I know you do have so many ones, too. Don’t compromise for an average life distant from your real needs. See your Choices, Brainstorm, Decide and take a brave step to live the life of your own, unique, personal dreams!

Final and Most important tip:

Do not burn your bridges. Keep contact with your colleagues and associates if you decide to quit working, or if you decide to work from home. The best way to do so is through social media and especially LinkedIn. keep contacts, keep updated. In the future, when your children are grown enough and they will not need you that much anymore, you might consider going back to the corporate world. Working from home "in your pajamas" might sound ideal, but it is defiantly not easy, and it doesn't let you socialize and expand as much as you do in the corporations. So, just keep in  mind that. Focus now on raising your kids, but be always open for a glorious "come-back" in the future.

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