Home Based Business Mom

As a work at home mom….you’re constantly being torn between domestic work, child rearing and job-work.
Do you throw in a load of laundry, start fixing dinner, try and write a blog post or help someone with their homework?
It’s a constant mix of work….work…..and work. I’m not saying it’s bad…..but I am saying it’s exhausting.

Now….don’t get all bent if you work outside the home and feel just as much pressure. I got that. I do. But if you were
working at home….you’d find yourself pulled in a lot more directions. Even when I was on-air in radio with a huge

board in front of me, CD players stacked high….maybe guests in the studio, the phone ringing, contests to prep for….a show to prep for….I did not feel as pulled. That was cake compared to being a work at home mom.

So….here I sit….11:30PM and I’m tired. I’ve not really had any down time to speak of today and I really need to get to “work”. Just like this post….what am I going to write about? I don’t have any ideas. I feel to tired to research something or to try and be witty. The kids have been home for weeks on Christmas break and now they’ve been home all week for snow. I’m getting “twitchy” and easily annoyed. I was startled today by a dust bunny in the corner of the stairs. I swear I thought it was a rat….a BIG rat. Nope….just cat hair, dog hair, people hair, dust….dirt. Yuck. Do I stop what I’m doing to drag out the vac and get it? But wait…I need to fix dinner….or maybe feed the dog…..or the cats…kids….get groceries….the toilet is plugged up. Damn….the battery in the car is dead?? Dentist appointments in the morning….don’t forget that poster board for the history project your daughter is doing……blah blah blah blah blah…..

Yep…I’m tired. I can’t think anymore.
So good night.

Sleep well.
Even you dust bunny.

You can tell me…
Because you can trust me.

It’s just you and I talking here – one on one.

Do you take your Blackberry to bed with you? Your iPhone? Your laptop?
Do you have to give it a couple of update checks just one more time before you actually go to bed?

Maybe you plan to go to bed, and then two hours later you find you’re still doing Twitter updates and answering emails?

What happened to actually going to bed?

And as my husband rolls his eyes while I type this post on my laptop IN bed – what happened to sex? “You’re all ‘a twitter for Twitter more than for my hot manhood!”

OK….he didn’t say that. My husband would never say “manhood”. I just took that straight out of cornball romance novels.

But he DID roll his eyes.

According to an article published on ZDNet this week:

“More than 1 in 4 employees are so tethered to laptops and smartphones that they can’t    resist taking them to bed with them before sleeping, according to a small survey released today.”

You’d think because I work at home – I wouldn’t feel the need to bring my laptop up to bed, or carry my iPhone with me like it’s some type of device that keeps my heart working. But I do.

I wonder….for those of you like me….are we waiting for some kind of ULTIMATE EMAIL?
ULTIMATE TEXT MESSAGE? FACEBOOK POST? TWITTER RESPONSE?

Is there an invitation to the White House, maybe even better… to Madonna’s house we’re waiting on? Do we think we’re going to be asked to host the Oscars? Is Oprah right now posting something on our Facebook page?  An invite to help host her Fridays Live show maybe?

What is it that compels us to carry that little smartphone around? Or to bring a laptop to bed when we already have a home office??

I honestly don’t know?

I mean – I could be sleeping right now – letting my body rest and rejuvenate itself. Give my brain some much needed down time. I could be having awesome sex right now with a man I love. A man I chose to spend the rest of my life with that is – totally sexy and a fabulous lover. (He will blush when he reads this tomorrow – but he knows that he’s awesome!)

Oh but nooooooo….
I gotta check my iPhone for any new tweets. I mean….My GOD, how can I sleep if I don’t know what John Mayer and Kirstie Ally are doing right THIS minute. How?? I ask you, how??

And hey….not get a post out on my blog? I gotta get that done. So let me fire up that laptop as I plop into my bed.

My sleepless, sexless bed.

I just had to post today. I mean tonight…tomorrow….ummm….this morning.

Anyway….must post.

Had to.

I felt compelled.

Why? Because I think I’m one of those obsessive compulsive work at home moms that feels like it’s ALL got to be DONE!

Yes….
I’m one of those freaks.

I’m trying hard not to be. I mean…..that was one of my new year resolutions….to just kinda “chill” on the home front. But – it’s hard. Very hard.

My husband used to find my need to have ALL the laundry done ALL the time kinda “cute”.

Now….he finds it “scary-weird”. He’ll say…..”Kelly…..there will ALWAYS be more laundry….always…..it’s not a ‘caught-up all the time’ thing…”

Hmmmmmm…..
Nope. NO. No no no…..you’re wrong, Honey.
It      must      be      done.

Which brings me to my post today. (Yes…there is a point.)
I am not the only total nut case that thinks the laundry needs to be caught up at all times.
Am I??

Hello? Anybody?

I certainly know I’m not the only work at home mom that feels like she must get ALL her work done. “If I could just get caught up a little……”

Listen….even with my “laundry habit”…I do realize that there is ALWAYS work to do when you work at home. I know in reality I could work every day, all day for a year…..and there would still be stuff to do.

Hey…wait a minute….I DO work every day of the year….pretty much. And you know what….I never get it all done.

So today….I wave the white flag. Actually I wave a pair of dirty socks. I think they were white at one time?? I will not wash these socks. Nope.

I will leave this pile of clothes sitting here.  Because my laundry closet is right outside my office and I have to pass it to go to the bathroom – I will look at it often. It will mock me. It will smell stinky. (I have a teenage son…..boys stink.) But I will keep walkin’.

The same with my “work at home” job.

I will not work til 3am. Nope…..it’s after 1am – and I’m going to bed. I refuse to let my “Yes, I can do it ALL” attitude drag me into another all-nighter like a bar hopping buddy you know shouldn’t hang out with.

You too.

Go to bed.

I know you’re out there.

::smirk::

Sweet Dreams.