Photo by viZZZual.com

A WAHM’s life is not always a pie-in-the-sky.

There will be moments when finding the balance between work and family life almost seems impossible.

Like these last days, I faced the final exam days of my children. And they sure were hectic ones!

These final exams occur 4 times in a year every year. These are also the times of the year when I feel balancing my work and family life is unattainable.

Yup…it’s sometimes very hard to separate work life from family responsibilities when working at home. Time management is the key but honestly, during these times, my emotions get the better of me. If you’re a woman, you’ll understand exactly what I mean.

The responsibilities of a WAHM include managing the home and the tasks given by clients. But for me, during exam days, there are added responsibilities and that is to help my 2 younger children review for their upcoming long tests for 10 subjects each. Plus, I also need to constantly oversee that my eldest daughter is focusing on her own review, otherwise she gives in to the tendency of giving in to distractions like using my mobile phone to log in every now and then to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr….oh no!

These are the “really” challenging days for me as a WAHM.

When I say it’s challenging, the main challenge I face is not the deadlines by clients…
But that of being at war with myself…

I am torn between my want to work and log in the usual number of hours that I do each day and my conscience telling me to just focus on the children’s reviews.

The fear of having backlog work is just overwhelming!

What I found helpful to bringing back the inner balance and the balance at home as well are the following thoughts and food, would you believe?!

Take a look:

• My children are my priority. They are the reasons why I chose to be a WAHM in the first place. Thinking about the main reasons which pushed you to becoming a WAHM would help set your priorities straight. Because of having the luxury to work at your own schedule, it’s true, sometimes you have the tendency to put more hours at work. However, when needed, like the exam days of my children, it’s best to keep your flexibility and choose which is the least priority of the two…work or life? In my case the life, specifically the  future of my children is more important during those exam days than earning my income.

• I also need a breather. Helping the children review for their exams takes my mind off of work for almost half of the day. This is like taking a day off. Having a break, especially a day or two off of work is essential when working at home. It’s just like regular work after all. If you don’t take time to relax and unwind, you will eventually burn yourself out. So viewing the hours I spend away from my computer as a much needed “vacation” takes away the itch I feel about not being able to work for longer hours.

• Time to attend to personal projects. Now reviewing the children doesn’t mean I’m preoccupied with them all the time. When they memorize terms and lists from their lessons, I have some free time of about 10 to 30 minutes, either I choose to do some more work (but I tell myself here that it’ll be cut short any minute) or I give time for personal projects like writing this blog post or planning my eBook!…Yes, it’ll be out soon, so make sure to watch out for it

Giving time to do the things you enjoy is vital when working at home too. If you cannot or do not want to go out, personal projects are another way to enjoy yourself and express your creativeness. Having personal projects like making a blog or creating crafts will make you more satisfied in working at the comforts of your own home.These creative endeavors allow you to see more the benefits of the flexibility of a WAHM’s life.

• I get to eat more peanuts! Peanuts are known for their brain stimulating components. I let my children eat as much as they want of this legume during their review period. I, of course, eat with them …This practice, somehow, relaxes us while invigorating our brain activity. We get to cover more lessons at a faster pace and like I mentioned above, I get to work on other projects too. Multitasking does not bowl me over all of a sudden. Here is a page listing more of peanut’s benefits. :)

If you are a WAHM or finding ways of becoming one, you might want to keep in mind these self-imposing rationalizations I listed. Their purpose is to constantly check if the life in work/life balance still exists which working freelance or running your own home-based business also face.

Any other ideas to add to this list? Don’t hesitate to share it with me in the comments below