Working mom + stay at home mom = work at home mom.

Many more parents got a taste of working at home with their children during the pandemic. I have worked from home full-time for several years, but only became a mom in November of 2020, returning from maternity leave in February 2021. So now I am a WAHM. The experience has given me insight into what many of my students’ parents juggled throughout 2020 and 2021 while working at home while taking care of their little ones at the same time.

I have found that since working from home, a lot of people just don’t understand that

1. I am actually working
2. I have certain hours that I work and cannot be interrupted
3. I’m not just sitting at home watching tv and eating bon bons

Now that I’m also a parent who happens to work at home while my baby is also here, another layer of confusion has been added for others. Here are my answers to the FAQs: Yes I stay at home. Yes I work full-time. Yes I am a mom. Yes I need a babysitter.

Right now I am teaching summer school, working as a social media coordinator for a couple of businesses, developing and teaching a course for museum professionals, volunteering at two museums, and managing my teacher resource business. There is no summer break. So here’s what my typical weekday in July looks like:

• 6:30 or 7 – wake up and take care of baby
• 8:00 – babysitter arrives, time to answer emails, prep lessons, grade work, schedule social media content, etc.
• 10-12:00 – teach live virtual lessons and have meetings
• Noon – babysitter leaves
• Afternoon – try to work my other jobs, clean up the house, take care of the baby and the dogs.
• Nap time – (not a nap for me 😅) try to rush and get work done, while in a perpetual state of “the baby could wake up any moment, should I pause here or keep working on another task and potentially get interrupted.” (this I the state I am currently in. I should be working, but I didn’t want to start a new project because the baby could wake up in 5 minutes. So I’m writing this blog instead. And the baby continues to snooze, so I could have gotten some of my actual work done – which adds to the anxiety because now when will I have time to do that work? It is a vicious cycle.)
• Evening – continue to do all afternoon tasks while also attempting to cook and eat dinner. Sometimes also teach a professional development or have a meeting.

I’m not complaining. I love that I can stay at home for many reasons. I do not miss having a long commute. I do not miss packing a lunch. I do not miss having an uncomfortable desk chair. I do not miss getting strep throat every single year from my students. It is amazing to be able to pop out of my home office between classes to see my daughter’s sweet smile! I love having my dogs snoozing on the floor next to me. It is so cozy to wear my slippers while I teach. I am so lucky that I can be a combination of a working mom and a SAHM.

I just wanted to bring awareness to work situations that are a little unconventional. ✌️