My new boss is a tyrant. She is bossy and demanding. While she stands less than four feet tall (including her piggy-tails) she is quite intimidating.
In a previous post, I talked about how much I enjoyed working from home because I enjoy being independent and “boss-free“. Well, I am starting to realize that I am not actually boss-less, I simply switched from one type of boss to another.
My new boss is three years old. She tells me when I should work, and when it is time to play. The other day, she even chastised me for drinking too much coffee ..”mommy, you need to drink some milk”. She was right.
Don’t get me wrong. I adore my boss and wouldn’t change careers for anything. In fact, I started my business for her. She was an infant when I started my direct sales business. “Boy, this is easy…” I thought. I simply fed her, changed her and worked while she slept. She wasn’t terribly demanding and I got a lot of work done.
Now, I find myself doing a lot of bargaining with her. “Jenna, I am going to work for an hour and then we will go to the park and play”. “If you are not going to nap, you need to have some ‘quiet-time’ so mommy can work”. My son is two and he seems to “roll with the punches” a bit more.
We all know how dramatically children can change in a year. They learn to talk. They learn to ride bikes. They start to read and they become more and more independent.
As a glossy-eyed new mother, I didn’t even stop to consider how much my at-home business would change as my children grew. When my daughter was an infant, she was on a tight schedule and so was I. Planning my work schedule was simple…(morning nap – make calls, afternoon nap – finish paperwork, evening nap – more calls).
Today, things are drastically different…(morning cartoons – check e-mail, afternoon nap *if it happens* – write, during the rare moments the kids are playing quietly together – write some more, bedtime – work until I crash).
If you are considering starting a home-based business, or if you are just starting out here’s a bit of advice. Plan on being flexible. I was naive when I started. I remember telling my husband, “I’ll be able to put in twenty hours per week while Jenna is sleeping”. That worked great when she was merely eating, sleeping and pooping.
Now, I find myself working when my boss allows me to. It’s not a bad thing. In fact, I enjoy the excitement of a bit of chaos. I simply wish someone would have prepared me for the dramatic changes I would face in my business as a result of the constantly changing needs of my family.