Why I Choose to Be a Work at Home Mom ~ Soulmate Workmate

I am very blessed to be in a position where I don’t HAVE to work – financially or otherwise. I know that their are a lot of people who don’t have this luxury. I hope that I never take this blessing I have for granted. I am very thankful for a hardworking husband that provides for our family.

So if I don’t HAVE to work, why do I choose to work?

A little background about me. Since high school, I have had a number of different job. I always enjoyed working. I loved the variety of different jobs I’ve had. Through these jobs, I discovered I had a love for business – particularly the organization and administrative side of business.

When we became pregnant with our first child, I knew that I wanted to be a stay at home mom. It was something that Michael and I had talked about and agreed we both wanted.

It was a little sad when I stopped working about a month before our daughter was born. But I was super excited to become a mom. I couldn’t wait to learn how to take care of a baby and be a parent.

As our daughter grew, I loved being able to stay home with her full time and invest a lot of time into her. I enjoyed being able to volunteer at our church and for different organizations in my “free time”. I was loving being a full time mom.

But there was a small part of me that missed being involved in the business world. I knew I had a knack for business administration and I missed it. Staying at home full time can be kind of lonely. You can get lost in the world of diapers, spit up, laundry, and baby babble. I felt like I had a lot of time on my hands. I knew I wasn’t being as productive with my time as I could be.

I knew that I wanted to stay home full time with my baby but wished there was something more I could do from home.

One day Michael and I came up with the idea that I could process payrolls for some of his clients. At the time he was working at an CPA firm and was in transition of becoming the owner of that firm. I was excited! It was something that I could do 100% from home. It wouldn’t take up a lot of time. And I was already comfortable and familiar with doing since I had done it before.

I started working with a couple clients and loved it! And I am actually still process payroll for these clients several years later – If you need your payroll processed I am your lady!

As the time for Michael to become the owner of the CPA firm came closer, I knew I would love to be involved in helping Michael with the firm. I wanted to help my husband. I wanted to help ease his stress and alleviate his frustrations. As we talked through things that needed to be improved or things that we would like to change in the firm, I knew that I wanted to help him implement these changes.

I was beginning to see that God had been preparing me to help Michael with the business – through the jobs I had had, the training I had received, my love of business, and the places I had volunteered. I knew that God was calling me to help my husband in the business.

Interestingly, I have a distinct memory of my mom (who passed away when I was 18) and something she told me when I was about 16. She told me that she felt God was preparing me to help my husband in business some day. She had NO idea of what my future held – that I would marry Michael or that he would own a business.

But back to the story. In addition to being able to help Michael with the business transition, I was also able to take an active role with the administrative side of the business.

The firm’s secretary retired about 4 months before Michael took over the business. I took over the admin position when she left – which required going into the office several days a week. At the time I was 6 months pregnant with our second child. Even though I was taking a more active role in the business, I still wanted to be a full time mom to our kids. The solution – our kids came to the office with us!

There was definitely an adjustment to learning how to work with young kids around and for our kids to learn how to play quietly when needed. But it was such a HUGE blessing for me to be able to help my husband and be with our kids full time.

I continued to cover the administrative duties for a full year before we hired someone to help in that area. (You can read about how I worked 40-50 hours in the office during tax season with two kids here.) Now I am able to mostly work from home which makes things easier with having two young kids.

So, why do I choose to work? With young kids it sometimes seems like more of a hassle than it is worth.

1. I enjoy business and I enjoy working

If I didn’t enjoy what I do, I don’t think I would do it. I enjoy working in and on the business. I love interacting with our clients. I’m the kind of person that always needs to have a project that I am working on.

Before I started working, I felt a little bit isolated, lonely, and unproductive. I am not at all saying that I think moms who stay home full time are unproductive – quite the contrary; it is a lot of work to take care of kids and manage a house!

But for me, I thrive on having something else to work on. I thrive on being being busy and productive. You can read our tips on how to be productive when you don’t feel like it here.

2. I love working with Michael

This is the number 1 reason I work. If I wasn’t working in our business with Michael, I don’t think I would work. I don’t work just to work. I work because I love being able to connect with my husband in this way. I love being able to be apart of his world. I love helping him.

The whole reason I started working is because I wanted to help my husband. Working together has brought us closer and strengthened our marriage.

3. I want to allow Michael to be able to spend more time with our kids

When I started working with Michael, I didn’t realized that this would become one of my main motivations for working. But it definitely has! Because I have been able to take over some of Michael’s duties and help him in the business, it has allowed him to be able to spend more time with our kids.

Even though the kids have less of my undivided attention overall, they are getting a lot more of their Daddy’s time. For me, that is definitely worth the trade off!

Our goal for the future is that Michael would be able to spend even more time at home. We are excited as we are working on this goal and are putting things into place to hopefully make this happen soon!

So that’s my why. That’s why I choose to work.

Do you work? If so, I would LOVE to know why you work and what keeps you motivated!