Freelancing Writing as a Stay at Home Mom

Making the decision to stay at home with children is one that no mother (or father) ever takes lightly. It is however one that reduces a families income. There are ways around this and Freelance writing is one of them. However when it comes to working at home as a freelance writer and stay at home mother you might find that you need more hours in the day. What does a typical day in the life of a stay at home mom look like?

Well, it’s not the image portrayed by Peggy Bundy on “Married With Children” of sitting on the couch eating bon bons all day or leaving the dog to babysit. Having a permanent indention on the couch would be a vacation to the average stay at home mom. Stay at home moms take care of the kids, the cleaning, and the finances with little or no recognition. What does the life of a freelance writer looking from home look like?

That’s another story all together. The Freelance writer sets there own hours without someone looking over their shoulder. All they have to do is meet the deadlines set and follow submission guidelines in order to get acceptance for publication. They must also be prepared to resubmit do to rejection and wait to get paid for extended periods of time because of the contracts they sign to ensure they have constant work available.

Now it seems simple enough but what happens when you combine the two? Mom wants to be a writer and from home freelancing is her best option to start. So how does she go about getting starting and working her way up to making a decent income while ensuring all the rest of her duties as mother are met? It becomes a juggling act.

When a mother at home with a child decides to write her days begin to look rather hectic to those looking in. She has to make a schedule that often includes late nights followed by early mornings to ensure that her work is done. Even the strictest of schedules during the day can be interrupted by small children’s needs as a stay-at-home, work-at-home mom. Balancing the duties of child care, cleaning and work take time and patience to achieve.

When morning comes the mom is the first one up in order to get a few minutes of peace and a cup of coffee before heading to her computer to begin the work day before anyone else in the house wakes up. How long she has before she begins her day with the family varies but she will attempt to get as much done as she possibly can before they wake up and after they have gone to bed at night to ensure that she isn’t making them feel neglected.

When deciding to be a stay at home mom and a freelance writer everything has to be taken into consideration. If you don’t have the ability to recognize the need for a balance between your home and your work, and the possibility of having to stay up all night to finish in order to meet a deadline then you don’t want to go full time with your dream right away. When you have the drive and determination to clean the house, chase the kids and still manage to finish those twenty pages in time to meet a deadline that is fast approaching then you should by all means pursue that dream!