Sustainable Life
with Bibi
In general, I'm a crunchy granola mom (sometimes read: hippie) with no specific philosophy on life. Our family makes it from month to month with my husband working full time as a teacher, and me staying home full time with our daughter, while taking in paid jobs as they come my way. The family budget is tight, but we try to do our part to clean up our lifestyle and our planet.
To learn more about Bibi, check out her profile on Work It, Mom! and her personal blog, Mamasense.
The week that we closed on our house, I learned a very valuable lesson. Thou shalt not bite off more than thou can chew…I’m pretty sure that’s written somewhere. Sure, it was supposedly spring break, but that was for my husband. There’s no such thing as spring break for a freelancer mom. I’ve stated before (usually under my breath) that jobs always come knocking on my door at the worst possible moments. I feel a bit childish complaining about this, but come ON. There’s got to be a rule somewhere about keeping work evened out…I used to think that in college too (my professors didn’t agree, and midterm papers and exams all came in the same week anyway). In both cases (midterms, and a couple of weeks ago), I felt like the kid in this picture by the end.
So I’ve become a bit more determined to help myself out in this regard. I have set my profile to “not accepting new projects” in the short term, on one of my freelance translation sites. It’s not that I don’t need the cash, and it’s not that I really want to turn down jobs, but let’s face it…in the next couple of weeks with my husband gone all day at work, and all evening working to get our new home to a state of habitability, and having a toddler at home, and going to the bathroom every 15 minutes, and eating every 1.5 hours, I can barely keep up with my current commitments, let alone take on new projects.
It was really hard to click that “unavailable” button though. I could hardly stand it when it said that “prolonged absence could cut some or all of your repeat business off”. I don’t know if I would classify my absence as prolonged, but absence is absence, and I’ve never denied projects in the past. NEVER. Work from this particular avenue has been sporadic at best, but it always seems to come through when I’m in a pickle and need a little extra.
In the end I decided that sanity comes before money, and even before professionalism. And really, sanity is necessary for both of those things anyway. I’m not going to do my best work if I can’t spend enough time on it, and it won’t help me professionally or monetarily if I’m performing substandardly (and yes, I’m aware that that probably isn’t a word)…and let’s not forget the value of going through a move with a bit of grace and goodwill left coursing through my veins.
Do you ever have to turn extra projects down to keep life together?
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Sounds like you made a good decision. After all, how will you do a good job on your project if you’re “insane”? And if you’re stressed, it will affect your marriage, attitude, and your toddler will notice.
I wish I could answer your questions but I don’t work from home nor am I a freelancer. I’ve always wondered how WAHMs get anything done, especially those with an infant and a toddler. If they’re not taking care of a toddler, they’re taking care of the infant. When do they have more than 30 minutes of free time in one sitting?
Linda | March 31st, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I felt bad turning some down at first. I stay at home while my husband works and we make ends meet somehow. I clip coupons and look for sales. We don’t eat out or take unnecessary trips. The freelance jobs I get I know I should be happy for but they are like you said. They come as a storm and then you go days in the desert. There have been a few that I have turned down (and a few I wish I had) that have stressed me to no end. I don’t have the right to be choosy but I do,lol. When it comes to my family, our time is much more important. Thank you for writing this. It was as if you were talking to me.
Kristin | March 31st, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Good for you. I wrote a blog similar to this subject about how people work too much nowadays. But you have to turn yourself off sometimes. I have met so many miserable people who just work, work, work despite their personal life being in chaos. This makes for a grumpy person and what’s the point of being alive if you can’t enjoy some of it?? I also had to turn on my vacation responder for 2 days when my son was sick and it was great - except the sick part, of course. Guess what? My customers are still here. Even I am shocked by that one.
Oceans Mom | April 2nd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Sanity is priceless.
Daisy | April 11th, 2009 at 10:07 am