Freelance Writing and Child Rearing: Can the Two Worlds Combine?

As a young mother with two active boys under the age of six, I was always on the hunt for a great career opportunity that would not only let me work from home, but also give me personal fulfillment. I scoured the internet and came across quite a few prospects, many that seemed too good to be true. As I came to find out, most of them were too good to be true and the legitimate jobs, such as clerical workers and telemarketing, had fierce competition. I then found a website that was specifically for work-at-home mothers and clicked on one of the topics entitled "WAHM's Who Write". As I read through the posts, it suddenly hit me; THIS is what I was supposed to be doing! I have always loved to write, but never had the opportunity to turn my passion into a career with any kind of profitability. That was two months ago and I haven't looked back since.

Of course, with this realization came the question of how I was going to balance my home life with my newfound career choice. Most days it is difficult, at best, carving out time to take a shower, let alone to try and establish myself as the next novelist, but it can be done. First and foremost, you must budget your time wisely and adhere to a schedule. Sounds mundane, but if you tell yourself that you are going to work on your writing for three hours a day, then you must do it. This may require you to work two hours in the morning and one at night, or vice versa, but as long as you keep the time requirement then you will be more productive. While your baby is napping or your older child is at school is the perfect time to try and get some quality work done, but you may have to rearrange your schedule depending on what is going on in your particular household.