Mompreneur Next Door

Yesterday was my birthday, and I'm close to the mid-century mark, so it got me to reflecting on my life thus far. Seven years ago, a stranger asked me a very powerful question - if you keep doing what you're doing, how does your life look in five years? This very wise and good woman, who I didn't know at the time, unwittingly changed my life and ended up being a good friend and mentor. The answer was obvious - I would be sitting behind a desk, counting down the minutes and hours to the end of the day, to the end of the week, to the next vacation and to retirement. I would be asking a boss off for lunch time breaks with friends, for after-school activities with my kids, for vacation time with my family. And that is definitely not how I envisioned the life of my dreams. Here's how I wanted my life to look - I wanted to wake up in the morning and have time to be with my children. I wanted time to work out and take care of my physical health, I wanted time to be with my k

A few years ago, I found myself at a crossroads. I was working full time, going to school at night for a certificate program, and my kids were 5, 8 and 10. I felt busy and frazzled. I had loved what I was doing, and then my boss, the most incredible boss in the entire world who I adored and had taught me so much, had a stroke. We were all devastated. And my professional world changed drastically. So I started looking, looking for not sure exactly what but for something that would not come at the expense of my family. My search for what I wanted to do left me completely frustrated and unhappy. I knew I had a lot to offer but could not find anything that I wanted to do. Either the job was flexible but not worth the pay or was not flexible and would require long hours away from my family or was beyond meh. So that got me to thinking - was I asking myself the wrong question? Because ultimately, I was going to do what I wanted to do. Maybe the better question was, how did I want to live?

When I had my first son, I was working full time and loved what I was How time flies! Here I am with Max, Sam and Lily when they were little, and I wanted flexibility to be with them. Now they're tweens and teens, and I still want that flexibility!  doing, but I travelled a lot. My employer nicely offered me options when Max was born, but I didn't want to sit behind a desk. I wanted to be with my baby. For the first few months, I was able to bring Max to work with me, but once I had to leave him at day care, I cried every day. When Max turned one, I was pregnant with my second baby, and since my salary would barely cover 2 kids in day care, I left my job and started my Mompreneur path. Apart from my full- and part-time jobs, I've had three great, flexible Mompreneur gigs that have allowed me to make money and be with my kids. I'm sharing them here in the hopes that those of you looking for something but thinking you may have nothing to offer will realize that i

Do you have good, positive, supportive women in your life? Because I don't know about you, but there have been days when I really beat myself up. I mean truly. Like how can I even function in this world because wow am I a mess bad. When my kids were little, I was lost for a while. I had been working outside of the home, but due to daycare costs it didn't make sense for me to keep my full-time non-profit job, so I stayed home. As much as I was grateful for that time and love my kids, I felt a little lost. Shortly thereafter I found a co-op preschool and met a terrific group of parents. Then I started working part time and had office friends as well. My children grew older, and my office became more of a telecommuting environment, and I lost my network of people that I could laugh with, cry with, have fun with, be an adult with. So what did I do? I joined two amazing networks and created another one. All three include women at various stages of their lives, all three include wo