This is a very sensitive subject for many, some have a very strong opinion as to who works harder when discussing work at home mothers and those who work outside of the home. As a Mom who has been both routes in her lifetime, I feel there are pros and cons to both situations and I feel both situations you certainly work just as hard.

Pros Of Being A Work At Home Mom

• Ability to set your own schedule and work while your children are sleeping.
• Ability to attend conferences, events and more with your children whenever they occur.
• Ability to do what you love for a paycheck.

Cons Of Being A Work At Home Mom

• Not getting a consistent weekly paycheck.
• Work more hours than that of a “normal” job or career.
• Must market yourself often and be able to network with people on a daily basis.

Pros Of Being A Work Outside Of Home Mom

• Ability to have a steady work schedule.
• Ability to have a steady,  reliable weekly, bi-weekly or monthly income.
• Ability to leave work when you leave the building and focus on family when you arrive at home.

Cons Of Being A Work Outside Of Home Mom

• Not as much flexibility when it comes to losing work time to attend special school events.
• Having to miss some of your child’s firsts when they happen the first time.
• When your child is sick, you lose pay if no one else can stay home with them.

To Work At Home Or Not

Honestly the decision to work at home or not work at home is a personal decision based on what’s best for your family’s needs. Some mother’s who work full time outside of the home long to be home all day with their children, they are sad about having no choice but to work in order to make ends meet while other mother’s are just as happy leaving the kids in a daycare setting and attending to work in a different place than in their home office or living room, kitchen, etc.

I loved the job I held up until about March of 2006 as an Administrative Assistant, and I didn’t miss my daughter while I was working. This doesn’t make me a bad Mom, what happened was I got lucky in that I found a home daycare provider for my daughter that considered her family and even took her to their children’s sports events. We were invited to their birthday parties and they treated us very nice! I honestly would be working full time right now if I knew that same person was going to provide daycare again, she was awesome!

I enjoyed that I could go to work, be a crazy multi-tasking busy Mama without the disruptions you can have while working from a home office. I loved that my daughter learned to potty train much faster than I probably ever could teach her (AJ is 3 and still in diapers), Kee was potty trained by age 2. I enjoyed knowing that my daughter was playing with other children, interacting and having a blast!

I don’t recall one moment of time when I worked in my previous outside of the home position that I felt guilty of not being at home with her. As I sit here trying to work from home full time I find myself having to stay up later at night to get work done because I can’t get work done during “normal office hours” when I have two boys to tend to. I am not going to become a Mom who allows the TV or video games to be my children’s babysitter, although at times I will admit it has tempted me when AJ’s having a bad day!

I feel lucky in that I am able to work from home and pursue a business I love. I hope to be able to run my business completely full time even now being a single mom of three, why? Because I have no other choice in the matter, I can’t afford daycare payments without working simply to pay them to watch my two sons and I can’t imagine uprooting the two boys right now after such a dramatic change to their life.  I will be honest, if I don’t get my business running in the direction I need it to soon, it will be back to office or bank work again if the pay makes up for the fact that I will have to pay daycare again, but for now I am sticking to my goals of creating a financially successful business and I am a little over halfway there!

So … no matter what your decision is and no matter how others feel about your decisions, remember this is YOUR LIFE and you only live it once, so live it like you LOVE IT!

Make it a Happy Day!