Mother Guides

For most work at home mothers, one of the main reasons they opt to work at home is to earn extra income while not sacrificing any quality time with their children. The ideal scenario is to be able to perform your motherly duties every single minute of the day while your bank account increases healthily due to your business profits. However, realistically, it is impossible to be a hands on Mum 24 hours a day, seven days a week, when you are also running a home based business. There comes a time or two when you have to get some help, whether you like it or not.
 
With that in mind, here are a few creative child care ideas you can consider when and if the need arises:
Get your husband or spouse to help. If you are running a wedding planning business or freelance interior designing, usually you have to meet clients to discuss over the details. You can schedule the appointment later in the evenings when your husband or spouse is back from work. Get his help to watch over the kids for a couple of hours. Better yet, send your husband and kids to the movies for a bonding session while you meet clients for work at an adjacent coffeehouse. Then, meet up after the meeting and movie is over for an ice-cream session.  
 
 

Form a childcare network. Get to know other work at home mothers in your neighborhood and build a rapport with them. Then, suggest forming a childcare network. Each work at home mum can spare a certain amount of time a week, say 1pm to 3pm on a Monday for Work At Home Mum One, in her schedule to babysit other work at home Mums’ kids. If you have to meet a supplier, then schedule it on a Monday at 1pm and drop off your kids at the Work At Home Mum One’s home while you go off dealing with work. Anyone who needs a babysitter on that particular day can drop their kids off at Work At Home Mum One’s home as well.  
 
 

Hire a local high school student as a sitter. If your home based business does not require you to leave your home, you can hire a local high school student to come over and play with your kids while you work in your home office. This allows you some quiet and uninterrupted time to make important phone calls or send out urgent emails to customers, suppliers and the like. If anything unfortunate happens, you are just ten feet away and your kids will not dare to cause a racket knowing that you are just in the next room.  
 
 
 
Enroll your kids in art classes, ballet classes, bible study and so on. This gives you the flexibility to run work errands and meet clients and suppliers while your kids are learning new skills and making new friends. You can check your local library, community center or place of worship for free or low costing classes. In the end, you can get important work done and your kids will learn a new trade at the same time.  
 
 
 
 
One important tip to remember no matter which creative child care option you choose is to always run a background check on the people whom you are entrusting your kids to. Make sure they are trustworthy, reliable and will not harm your kids in any way. It might be helpful to ask around for recommendations on sitters from your close and trusted friends. Also, look around the surroundings and make sure the environment feels safe. If you have any bad feelings towards a particular sitter, then trust your instincts.