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Having a Mother’s Helper, who is also a mother herself, has changed everything. She brings her chubby baby with her, helps with laundry, takes my pre-schooler to class, gets my daughter down for a nap, and is thrilled beyond measure she isn’t working somewhere where she is just sending her paycheck to pay for childcare.

There are a few other things I do to help keep our home running smoothly as well:

Have a relaxed family routine. I do not allow myself to sign on to the computer until my Mother’s Helper is here. So from 7:30 to 11 a.m., I’m the mom. I pick up, re-boot the laundry, actually make breakfast (my sensitive 6-year-old always seems to have a much better day when he eats properly before school), take my vitamins, get everyone dressed, and we play for a while before my son catches the bus to go to Kindergarten. These 3 1/2 hours set the tone for the whole day.

Eliminate distractions. With my greatest (and favorite) distractions distracted themselves with super-fun-helper-lady, I had to take steps to make my working environment as focused as possible. This is very hard to do when you’re propped in a corner of your bedroom instead of, say, a lovely organized, inspiring office space. But it’s possible.

Since I only have a limited amount of time to work each day, working efficiently is key. To help alleviate my propensity to wander off while in the middle of detailing a web design mockup, I changed my e-mail settings so it won’t automatically check for new mail. I have to go click “Get Mail” manually, and I only let myself do it twice or 15 times per day. This way, the "new e-mail" ding doesn’t constantly distract me from whatever I’m supposed to be working on. And -- bonus! My client time sheets no longer have me clocking out and clocking back in every five seconds allotting for all of those inbox breaks.

I also unsubscribed from notification emails for nearly everything -- even comments from my blog.

Leave work behind. When I worked outside of the home, it was easy to leave my job behind and go home to enjoy my personal life. When you are self employed, the work is all yours and much harder to walk away from. It’s in the forefront of your thoughts, weighing on your mind, keeping you from mentally being present with your family. My Mother’s Helper has remedied a lot of this for me.

Now that I have a (mostly) uninterrupted bit of time to work, when the helper leaves after my son gets home from school, I sign off the computer and make sure that the afternoon belongs to me and my children. We play, we cook dinner together, they help set the table, we read together -- and, most importantly, we have a regular bed time routine. Isn’t always perfect, but is something my children seem to rely on.