The pros and cons of being a Work At Home Mum.

I realised a little while ago that I put a LOT of hours into this blog of mine.
I very occasionally make a little bit of money from it too.
It appears I’ve transitioned from SAHM to Work At Home Mum – or WAHM as it’s called in the ‘industry’.

A WAHM is not to be confused with Wham who were a LOT better paid and hung out at the Club Tropicana.

Given what I do, whenever I think of WAHMs (and WAHDs), I think in terms of bloggers.

Thanks to Instagram, filters and great camera angles I have a skewed perception of the lives of WAHMs.
I believe they have lovely, tidy houses, pristine white walls, live plants and a serene space to call their own.
They may even have a study where they can lock themselves away and be creative with words.
Changing the lives of others whilst typing away at their uncluttered desk with their uncluttered brain

OH, if only that were my reality! Rather, I find myself attempting to work within the home equivalent of Piccadilly Circus.

If you have found yourself mooching on Instagram thinking ‘the bloggers life is the life for me’, here are MY pros and cons to being a WAHM.

The Phone

Pro – you don’t HAVE to use it, everything is done by email. It’s brilliant, I don’t have to worry about deciding which words to use with my mouth. I can just delete things if they sound silly.
Con – If, in extreme circumstances, I do have to use the phone. There’s a small child yelling “Is it Daddy, can I say hello” in the background for the duration of the call.

Office ambience

Pro – You can listen to whatever radio station you choose, as loud as you’d like and you can even sing along.
Con – Fireman Sam and the Great Fire of Pontypandy will be on at Nan volume in the background. ALWAYS.

Breaks

Pro – you can take a break whenever you choose. Coffee time will not be dictated to you.
Con – You will constantly have to stop working to provide snacks, lunch, entertainment and toilet assistance to the small person in the house.

‘Office’ space

Pro – it’s your home, your comfortable place. Not a removable wall or carpet tile to be seen!
Con – Your ‘desk’ is also the dining room table/general storage area for the house, complete with dinosaurs and wool hats. I’d actually give a limb for a beautiful, minimal desk.

Colleagues

Pro – You don’t have to endure endless updates on Joan’s dating fails or listen to Bob eat his crisps at a volume that should actually not be possible.
Con – You end up with a small person perched on your knee, attempting to ‘help’ press buttons and delete 400 words before an auto save has occurred.

Workload

Pro – You can take on as much or as little as you want, work to your own deadlines and can while away an hour playing Solitaire Bliss if you choose! 
Con – By the time you’ve done the school run twice, fed and watered those reliant on you, entertained and tried to throw in a bit of ‘decent’ parenting. It actually takes four times longer than it really should to do any writing at all.

Office politics

Pro – There’s no one to steal your coffee mug, use your milk or take your stapler.
Con – Your phone/tablet/laptop is no where to be found because your small human has taken it to watch Kitten videos on YouTube.

Do you want to become a work-from-home mum?

Now we’ve looked at some of the pros and cons of being a work-from-home mum, you can decide whether being a work-from-home mum would be the right career path for you. If it is your dream to work from home while still maintaining a healthy work-life balance, you will be pleased to hear that there are plenty of exciting business ideas for work-at-home mums, such as starting a business from scratch, buying an existing business that will allow you to work from home or buying a home-based franchise. If you want to browse the latest work-from-home business opportunities in the UK, visit Franchise UK.

All that aside, I still prefer earning less than the bare minimum as a WAHM to getting one of those ‘proper’ jobs *winky face*