Jade Boyd: So today’s episode is very different from anything that we’ve done on. The podcast before, and this idea originally came. To be because I posted on my Instagram stories. Do any. other moms have experience running a business full-time and having a kid at home. Also full-time and if so, how did you make this work? And. I was about three months postpartum at the time. And we do. We still don’t have consistent childcare. At this point, but I know there’s been so many women who’ve talked about building their business. While also keeping their kids at home. And I received so many responses. To that Instagram story. And later I did a poll and I think. Like 81% of the people who responded said that they had kept their kids at home. Full time while also managing their business at one point. In time or another, which just blew my mind. This is something that so many women. have done. And so many women. want to do. But. In reality, it is so difficult and it is. Very challenging for a lot of different reasons. And I knew that I wanted to bring together. Some diverse stories of women. With different types of businesses. With kids in different situation who made it work in different ways to share. this information with you. One to. I give you. To to paint the picture for you, that building. a life first business is possible and you can do it on your terms, even if. it’s counter-cultural or against what you even think. is possible. Two I want to share practical. Tips and the reality of what this looks like behind the scenes. There are really honest stories in this podcast. And I got so many. Women who were willing to share their stories and they included such great. Information in the clips that they recorded for this episode, that I didn’t want to cut them down. So we’re actually cutting this into a part one and a part two episode. This. Is part one, but make sure you subscribe to the podcast. If you want The other. Half of the story with a four to five more women who are going to share their stories. of what it looked like for them to keep their kids at home full-time while also growing their businesses. Some of these women. You’ve definitely heard on this. Podcast before some are close friends who I’ve known for a long time, Some are new, some people. I’ve never met before. They just had a really interesting story that they told me on Instagram and I wanted to invite them onto. The show. So there’s a wide variety of stories. There’s people who are coming from, like I said, a wide variety of business types and. situations and have a lot of different. Solutions for what it looked like for them to be able to build their business while. also not sending their kids to daycare for a period of time. And to give you a preview of what questions. Everyone is going to answer. I asked them to introduce themselves, paint the picture. Of like their business, what they do and also their kids’ ages. And if they had, you know, one kid or multiple kids, what it looked like when their kids were at home with them. Um, and to and to share the story of how they made it possible to keep their kids at home while running. their business, the best part about keeping their kids at home. The most. Challenging parts about keeping their kids at home and also looking. Back, would they change anything or do anything differently if they could go back? And do it all again and why or why not? So those are the questions that each speaker is going to answer. in this episode. And without further ado, I’m going to let their stories. play. I hope that this episode is. Inspirational for you. And also if you’re in the thick of it, trying to do this, like. I am. I hope that it helps you feel seen and help, you know, that you. are doing the best that you can, and there is no secret. At the end of the day so like I said, hit subscribe because you will not want to miss the second. episode without. Further ado. Let’s dive in. / Welcome to part two in this series. Aries of how nine different women kept their kids at home while also. Growing their business. If you have not yet listened to part one, scroll back. Back a few episodes and make sure you go back to that episode of first, because that tees up. The idea behind how this episode came to be, why we’re sharing. Sharing this on the podcast. And also half of the stories more than half of the story is actually. Actually are in that first episode. And so you will not want to miss that first. First episode, make sure you listen to that one before you come back to this one, but in this. Episode, we’re going to go through former stories of women who are in business. Who ran their business for some period of time while their kids were at home. Full-time with them, how they made it work. The best part about doing that. The. The most challenging part about doing that and whether or not they regret it, if they would change. Anything, if they were able to go back to that period of time. So without further ado, let’s dive into the first story. / My name is Ana and I own the business Lovely Little Light. , you can connect with me on Instagram at lovelylittlelight. Otherwise, also my website is, lovelylittlelight com But I am a hand lettering artist and teacher. , I do business branding for small business owners and then also host creative classes and events both in person and online. So I live in a small town near Cedar Rapids, , and I have one daughter. Her name is Evie, and she is a little bit over one. So I actually have lived in kind of a couple of different worlds. , I took a, an extended maternity leave, also tried to do kind of some work with her at home with me, , and then also have kind of recently transitioned to like a hybrid daycare schedule, , where sometimes it’s no days a week, sometimes it’s twice a week, sometimes it’s once a week. So it’s a little bit. of kind of a as needed basis for daycare. So, , yeah, just kind of jumping into a little bit about how we decided just how to go about choosing the best option for us and kind of, , yeah, how, what got us to where we are now. So we actually chose, we, my husband and I, we chose to, , not start daycare until Evie was about seven months old. , my husband was super supportive of the decision and, , really just. What it is that was going to work best for me, , to be able to still kind of contribute to our family, but also just to be able to have a good balance between both work, , and being a mom. So, , I, in the beginning when she was probably between like three and seven months old, worked just kind of during nap times and after bedtime a little bit, , as a baby in that age, she napped for like four to five hours during the day. So I knew that I had time to work. And then as she You know, got older and just kind of like was able to kind of fluctuate within kind of her nap time. So I was able to kind of give or take squeeze in just work time also, like while she was playing, , was able to sometimes kind of get a little bit of time or even if while I was holding her. So on average, I would say that I had about five hours per day for work. Um, so I would say like what I did at that time was I really set my capacity at part time. So I said, all right, I have about 25 hours. That would be like naps kind of while she was with me during the day. And then also just maybe some nights periodically, um, that I was able to spend on work. So really what I did from there is I number one, made sure that I understood I was scaling back from where I was at prior to, Going on maternity leave or prior to just having a baby. So I was previously full time In in terms of full time hours when talking about and really scaled back to thinking, okay I am scaling back time So I know that like I am NOT going to set the same expectations of myself in Working these like more part time hours than I was When I was working full time, so really the three things that kind of allowed me to have her at home while still working was number one, just scaling back and knowing that I couldn’t work the same amount that I previously was. Um, I also set really strict time limits on like when I was working. So with that said, I really didn’t want to have my work take away from time with family. So I really made sure to only work a few nights. , and my husband and I kind of figured that out so that it wasn’t continuing to be like I was always working. , Really when we like put her down for bed so that I could prioritize just time with my husband as well, so. , for example, if I had an event that was going on in the evening, um, like I said, I host different creative events. I have some different clubs and collectives and things for women. So if I was hosting something at night with women, I made sure then to not work during the day. So I kind of, in my mind, worked it out as like trade time. And within those strict time limits, I just like had things scheduled for when I was working. and then most importantly, I based on those time limits had to know my capacity I think as women in general, we do a really good job of thinking we can get a lot more done than we can. So, , definitely a victim of that culprit of that. Um, but I really had to say, okay, what is my capacity? How many events can I host? How many clients can I take on? How many projects can I do? , how many goals are like realistic to actually have at this time? Or is it more like maintenance mode where maybe I’m not devoting as much time to maybe some of my business goals, , as maybe I would in a different season. So I think just knowing, okay, I’m scaling back, I’m having certain time limits and then knowing my capacity so that I fit into that, what is realistic and manageable. So again, didn’t do that perfect, but I would say those are kind of the three things that allowed me to have her home also working. Um, Jade’s quarterly reset plan. super helpful. , if you’re listening to this and you have not done that, , hopefully she can link that in the show notes because super helpful and practical and just planning all of this. and in the end, I just found myself that although I was doing those things, if you have children or if you know children at all, like they are like people, little people who don’t always follow an exact schedule. So in the end I did truly find myself getting just these feelings of like anger towards my daughter, which I hated to admit, um, at the time when she didn’t do exactly what I wanted. She was such a good baby. She still is, she’s a little over one now, but, when she just didn’t do exactly what I wanted and I had, oh, maybe 30 minutes less if she happened to wake up from a nap early or something like that. So in the end, I just found myself Feeling like I desired more of a separation between, like, my work and my, like, mothering. Um, and so truly we were super grateful to be able to have, , someone who actually lived just right up the road from us who was the in home daycare provider for my husband when he was a kid, , that we were able to just kind of have in our back pocket. So reach out to her at about. Seven months old. My daughter was seven months old. , and ultimately that was when, she started going to daycare. So I just realized I needed to have kind of, like I said before, just that separation of work and mom of just God revealing the sin of control in my life that I didn’t like and needed to confess, of course, but at the same time, , I almost realized, okay, I think that I can be a better business owner and a better mom when I really separated things out into different days. So still same amount of time I’m working. , but just in having a little bit of dedicated work time. So , what we decided to do was to do kind of one day a week for daycare as we started and then that kind of increased to two days a week and then in the summer there was a lot of ebb and flow of like sometimes she didn’t go at all and again such a blessing that we’re able to be flexible. Just kind of based on, , my work schedule. So, really eased into it. It was super hard at first, , for any mom. It’s, it’s hard, I think, regardless of profession, to go from maternity leave or to having your kids home to having them at work. , but ultimately, in the end, that’s what we do now. And it has just been super helpful. My daughter is very active. She loves her daycare days now. Um, She, we ask her, hey are you ready to go to daycare today? And she says, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, which is just really sweet to see and really reassuring just as a mom. So I still get to work during her naps and the days that I’m home with her. Um, but I don’t always feel like I have to work during her nap time. Whereas previously I felt like I had to. every opportunity I got to work, I had to squeeze work time in, whereas now I just feel such a better balance and being able to schedule out a full extended day of work. And then from there, if I do need to work during nap times, I can, but I don’t have to. So in both situations, really, I still had to know that, okay, I’m scaling back in terms of time, not necessarily in terms of like pay and scalability, but like for sure in the amount of hours. Um, I also had to set strict time limits, , especially on social media, , and like email, , and then also just really know my capacity. So for me, I just delight in feeling like I still get to be both a full time mom, , and a part time business owner. So for me, motherhood is just, yeah, my main ministry. And although hard at times, Um, I just love that I get to be a mom, but also love the fact that I get to have focused work time, , to just love and serve women in business through the creative abilities that I have. And then really just getting to share in my love of creativity and finding rest through creativity, , with other women through classes and events. So it’s been a really sweet balance, , just personally, but it’s taken time and kind of trial and error to be able to get to that point. So. Really, my closing advice is you don’t know what is going to work best for you, , really until you try it. , it was the best thing for me personally to just get to have her home to learn that I actually love getting to have set work days. , and then that really may not be. What is best for you or what you personally desire. , but ultimately you just have to do what’s going to fit best with both your business goals, , in your personality and just what you value, , the best. So ultimately I personally. , just value getting to be the main person with my husband to be able to raise our daughter. , and in that I value just having capacity to serve women while living in contentment and just open handed with what the Lord wants next. So, , if you’re personally discerning what to do with childcare, , whether you have a baby on the way or you have children already that are at home, Home with you and discerning, like if childcare would be best or really just wherever you’re at in discerning what to do with your children, with your work. , I guess my just encouragement to you would be to talk to your spouse, , to make it a unified decision that’s really aligned with what your family values. . On top of that, just learning about all options, trying different options. , and then just personally, I just pray that you would allow God to direct your decision. So I hope that provides some, yeah, just encouragement for you and hearing a little bit more about our story and what worked well for us. , and just being able to kind of manage things, but in the end, it’s all about balance and you’re going to find times where it’s in balance and times where it might not feel like it’s in balance. , but ultimately, hopefully you’re able to just find that you can be both a good mom and a good business owner. /   I am Mariah Danielson and I own Wander Design Company and I am located in eastern Iowa. I have two boys. They are seven and almost ten and for the most part they have been home with me the entirety of their lives, um, other than going to school. Um, there was one short time, , in 2019. , October of 2019 into, , February of 2020, where they did go to daycare for one day a week. Um, just so I could kind of focus and get some things done. But then COVID hit and everybody was back home. So, I would say for the most part, um, being able to, , break up my days into sections. different times. Having set aside for work, I utilized nap time a ton a ton. My boys were both very good nap takers, and so, , when they were super little, or actually up until probably four years old, , for both of them, they would take three hour naps in the afternoon. So, I was really blessed with having that time, uh, to work in the afternoons. While they did take naps, I just had to be really aware of the projects I was taking on at the time, just making sure that I was working with the right clients. So the work I was doing was Fulfilling and fun and I wasn’t resenting the work I was doing while, you know, my, my kiddos were home. There were times I just remember thinking, I’m getting interrupted every five minutes. I can’t focus all that well, but it’s kind of blurry a little bit now thinking back, but somehow I was able to find. you know, pockets of time to have like that creative, deep thinking that, , I need when I am designing a brand or a website. We also have parents close. Um, my parents and my in laws both live, , about two blocks from each other, five miles from us, so that’s been helpful. , I also, I, I do feel guilt in asking for help generally with my kids. Just a personal thing, but, , having them as backup if needed was also very helpful. There would be days that, , once my parents were retired, that I would, you know, have my mom come over for a morning so I could run to a coffee shop and work. At that point in my life, I really wasn’t working nights and weekends. , all through college, I worked, design nights and weekends, and I got Pretty burnout on that. So I really wanted to save those for my family once my family grew. But at some time, sometimes it was necessary. I also, for a number of years, woke up super early. I would wake up around 4:30 and get some work done before everybody else woke up. Just grounding myself, , doing some Bible study or a workout before the rest of the family got up so that I could be in the right head space once. You know, the day started. I would say the best part about keeping my kids home with me was I had a lot of fear about who I would send my children to. I had heard, , you know, from friends, close friends whose, , kids had gotten injured, , pretty badly at daycare. And I was just always very Nervous to send them somewhere. Ideally, I would have had a family member in my home. That would be, that would have been my ideal situation. , but I think just the idea of having somebody else watch them kind of made me uneasy. So the best parts about keeping them home with me, , they really, they got to be a part of everything. They came with me to meetings. For the most part, especially my first when he was a baby, I would take him to every single meeting, , but just being able to be around them and witness those first, every first moment, of course, It’s it’s not easy. It’s not a walk in the park, but being able to raise your child and, and be, you know, be around them all the time, , and, and be there for them and be the one who comforts them and be the one who, , gets to share special moments with them, I think was probably the best part. The most challenging part about keeping kids home. For me personally, as a creative entrepreneur who needs some, uh, long stretches of time to accomplish work, long stretches, stretches stretches of uninterrupted time to accomplish work, I would say not having that was the biggest, struggle that I had just feeling like I was always getting a snack or always changing a diaper or always doing something like this, but as, as hard as those times were It it made the long stretches of time I did get during naptime or, , if a family member came over, it made me really focus and get a lot of work done. , I had quit my corporate job a few years before I had kids, just in preparation to have kids. And, , I would say the year I had my son, , I had made the most money than the two year, I had made more money than the two years previously because I really had to manage my time well. I work really well with schedules. I work really well with, , time blocks. And so when you have a kid, it kind of, you, you have to have good time blocks set up. , Although they do get interrupted as well, but I would just say having, having that time be interrupted was probably some of the most challenging, , parts about having my kids home with me. And looking back, I really wouldn’t do anything differently. I would say, , I was, I was really much into my business for a while. Once I had. My sons, I, like, for a while couldn’t wait till they were in school so that I would have my days back. And then they both went to school and I had seven hours in the day to accomplish all I needed to accomplish. And, , I don’t know if I was any more productive than when they were home. So, uh, it just kind of brought to light. How wonderful having them home was, , despite the interruptions, despite the hard days, uh, I think being able to have them by my side at all times, I would not, I would not change that at all. And in fact, we just switched to homeschooling this year. So now they’re home with me again all the time. However, they are at an age now where we can do school in the morning and then they will play all afternoon by themselves. So I have some really focused time to work. And that’s been really sweet to have them, you know, still home with me. And, yeah, I wouldn’t trade, I wouldn’t trade that time. in any way or fashion for nearly anything. I think one specific story that pops into my mind, um, of what looked like, life looked like for me during those times, um, I went through a period of tracking my time, writing down what I was doing in, in an entire week in half hour time chunks and For some of the years, the earlier years when my sons were probably three and a newborn or four and one. That’s probably when I was tracking that time and I couldn’t even I couldn’t get through I just I I couldn’t get through writing down a half hour time chunk because I was so interrupted in so many ways on a couple of different days that week and I I got so frustrated and upset that I just did not have that time for myself and At some point I realized this time is a gift. The interruptions are a gift. I am here at home with my boys and they get to have their mom, , raise them. They get to be at home when dad gets home. And that kind of shifted my thinking despite, , how frustrated I was that I was not. accomplishing seemingly anything. I, I still, the, the most important work was being done, and that was raising them well, and attending to their needs, and being able to do that in our own home, and still run a business, and make some money. To help support our family, but I would say that was a pretty good picture of that point in , this is the most important work. And I felt pretty honored that I was able to do that most important work and also run a business.   Hi, my name is Sarah Whittaker and my business is called podcasting for educators. We help online business owners launch, manage, and grow podcasts for their business. I am located in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which is about an hour outside of Washington, D. C. And I have two little girls. My oldest is seven years old. She’s in second grade. And then I have a baby who just turned seven months old. So, my experience working as an entrepreneur and having Kids at the same time has been two very different experiences with each of my girls because I’m, I’m a former teacher. I used to teach elementary school and when I first left the classroom and started my business, my oldest was at the time about two years old and I did not have any childcare for her when I started. And so, My biggest reason for leaving the classroom was because I wanted to work from home. I wanted to have a flexible schedule. I wanted to be able to spend time with her. When I was a teacher, you know, we were dropping her off at daycare by 7am, picking her up at four o’clock ish. And by the time we got home and had dinner, it just felt like we had no time together. So that was definitely the driving force of starting my business was to have her at home with me. And When I first discovered the online space, I went through a program that taught you how to start a business and that program, along with so many other programs that are targeted at moms, I felt like I was sold this idea of the nap time hustle and That everybody does it and it was going to work out great. You can run your business, you can have your kids at home, easy peasy, no problem. And that was definitely not the case. Working from home running a business, especially when you’re first getting started while you have your children at home is really, really hard. My business took off really quickly, which I’m so grateful for, but. That made it really hard to balance being a mom and being a business owner when I didn’t have any child care during the day. To be honest, I really disliked trying to do the two at the same time. I I felt guilty if I was trying to work when my two year old was next to me wanting to play. And, then on the opposite side, I felt guilty when, you know, we might be at the park and I was having a hard time not looking at my phone to see if a client was messaging me. And so it was really hard for me to find that balance. And and so I was working a lot of nights, a lot of weekends. And that’s really trying to, because then I, then you feel like you don’t have any time with, you know, Because then I felt like I didn’t have any time with my husband. We didn’t have any time all together. And so that went on for Almost the whole first year and then I ended up putting my oldest in part time Daycare preschool kind of thing actually looking back My mom stepped in and helped a couple of times a week first, and then I added on the part time daycare So once I did finally get that help it made all the difference and I think I felt guilty for doing that at first because I Felt like well, isn’t this why I started my business so that I could have her at home with me all day You So why am I getting help, whether it was help in the home or help out of the home? I’m not supposed to be doing this, but so if you’re feeling that way, you’re not alone. I’ve since talked to so many business owners who feel that same struggle, but ultimately you have to do what’s best for you and your mental health, your kids and your partner and your business. It’s all of these factors. And Like I said, for me, once I got that help, it made such a difference. And I felt like it was really the best of both worlds because she wasn’t in full time childcare. I still was able to spend those days. I was still was able to spend a big chunk of the day with her, but I was also able to work on my business and I wasn’t having to work so much at night and on the weekends. Now, fast forward five years. I had my second daughter. And right now she just turned seven months old and she is home with me 24/7 She refuses to take a bottle. So even if I wanted to put her in childcare, I’m not able to right now, which is a whole nother struggle that I could go on a tangent about. But my business has grown and evolved in so many different ways over the last five years that I do feel like now I am at a point where I can manage both. I can have her at home with me all day, every day. And. run my business. There are challenges for sure. There are so many challenges, but a big part of wanting to have a second child while I was running my business is that I didn’t want to have to put my newborn in full time daycare. That was just something that was really important to me the second time around. And so I, am really happy at the place that we’re in right now where I am able to manage both things. She’s still young enough where she’s taking longer naps. So I do work during the nap times and I work a little bit when she’s awake too. I’m really not working on the weekends anymore. Occasionally I’ll work at night if I’m feeling really behind, but I’d say on average I’m working like three to four hours a day. The best part by far about having kids. The best part by far about having my kids home with me while I’m working is just being able to see all of those little day to day moments and be a part of those moments. We go on walks together. I’m the one that gets to put her down for her naps and wake her up from her naps when she’s so happy. And I’m the one able to feed her all day. I feel like I’m able to actually Be in the moment during this whole first year of her life. Whereas with my first daughter, when I was still teaching so much of that first year was spent in daycare. And I feel like I missed so many moments, the most challenging parts about keeping kids home with you while you’re working, you know, there’s, there’s definitely several. I think right now for me with having a baby, one of the hardest things is doing anything live. So getting on scheduled calls with people. Can be really difficult. I’m a podcaster. So doing guest interviews or guesting on other podcasts, it can be a little bit tricky. I will say one of the amazing things about this online space is that so many of the people in this, in this space are. Moms and so they get it and it, and there’s just something so cool about being able to connect with other people who are at home raising their babies while running a business, and you’re able to just be in that space together, and that’s been really amazing. The other big challenge right now in the season that I am in is my hours are very limited that I can work. And as an entrepreneur, I like so many of you. Always am constantly coming up with new ideas and things that I want to try out. And I feel like I just can’t quite do everything that I really want to do right now in business, because I just simply don’t have the time. I don’t have enough hours in the day to do what I used to be able to do. You know, the past two years before my second daughter was born, my oldest is in school all day long. And so I had all day to work on my business and to really lean into those things that I wanted to do. And right now I’m just more in that season of kind of coasting. I am leaning into things that are already working in my business versus adding a bunch of new things. Looking back, if you asked if I would do anything differently, I think that for the most part, everything kind of happened the way that it was supposed to. And I know that might sound kind of woo woo, but I think coming from my background as a teacher into becoming an online business owner, like everything was a learning curve and I kind of had to just. learn as I went and figure out how things were going to work for me and my family. And the only way to really learn those lessons was to be in it and have things happen the way they happened and make changes along the way. I think if I had to pick one thing I would say, I wish that I could have let go of that guilt of getting help sooner because when we feel that pull to get help and we feel overwhelmed doing All of the things by ourselves. It’s, it’s not helping anybody. So if you are feeling that struggle and you’re feeling super overwhelmed, working with your children at home, I definitely encourage you if help is available in any way, even if it’s, you know, if you don’t have family around, do you have a friend that you could each have a day of the week where you take care of yourself? each other’s children so that the other can work for a few hours or just have some time to yourself. I think that there are some creative, I think that we can get creative in the ways that we ask for help. Connecting with other online business owners who are parents and who are in the same day to day hustle has really helped me. To just have that camaraderie and and have those people to vent to or to bounce ideas off of so if you need a friend Like that in this online world. I am always available You can find me on instagram at podcasting for educators If you ever want to chat about mom slash business life  ​  ​   Right, first, hi, I’m Kelly, um, I am the owner of Kelly Ryan Co. We are a brand and website design agency that also focuses in SEO and general organic marketing. Um, I work primarily with the wedding industry and other creative entrepreneurs. Um, but I’m also a mom to three boys, so I have an 11 year old stepson, and then a 3 year old son, and a 19 month old son. And I Um, I started my business actually when the three year old turned one. So I’ve been in business for a little over two years now, and he is a big reason of why I started my business. At the time I was teaching elementary school and. found that like trying to balance this full time job that demanded me to be present every day combined with, you know, getting those sick calls from daycare and just the wanting to spend time with your baby, um, it just didn’t, mesh together. Like it was not the life that I wanted. And so I left after that school year and decided to start my own business. And then kind of unplanned, um, we found out that I was pregnant with our youngest, um, like within a few weeks after starting the business. So that was a little bit shocking and really, changed the way I probably would have gone about building a business. Um, had I not had, you know, this newborn in my first year of business. So with my three year old son, I obviously, he started at daycare full time when he was three months old. Um, Um, because I was teaching and we don’t have family nearby or anyone else that could have helped and like the cost of daycare is crazy, but the cost of, like, one on one help at home, even crazier, at least here where I live in Nevada. Um, so once I found out that I was pregnant with the youngest, we really, you know, went through options of like what would be the best role and, um, kind of decided we would like play it by ear. So really learned through that newborn stage. that every baby is so different. Um, my older son,, was really colicky, had a lot of reflux. There were a lot more challenges involved in, , just trying to parent him. And like during that maternity leave that I had with him, , I spent so much of my time like in a dark room, in a rocking chair, just trying to get this poor baby to sleep. , whereas With my youngest, I mean, he was just like one of those born sleepers. Like he just enjoyed sleeping and, and I was able to really jump back into my business and, and really truly do the, like working through nap time type of thing. and so we really got, were able to put off any kind of additional childcare with him. And just I, I took on fewer clients than I had, um, you know, pre newborn and kind of adjusted my schedule, but I also gotten more efficient at things too. So I could make things work, , while I had a baby home with me. So I kept my son home full time, , where it was. really just me, for five months. And, uh, I would typically just work during naptimes. My husband would be home on nights and weekends, but I just kind of like minimized my workload as much as I could and tried to like, batch things where I could. I also definitely was not as present on social media during that time like for my business because it just was not the priority, um, as far as like getting the work done. Like my client work became my largest priority at that time. Um, at five months old, he, we started putting him into daycare part time. So then he went just a couple days a week and those became like my dedicated work days and then I also, um, would still work through nap times when he was home. And then we finally moved him to full time at daycare. when he was 17 months old. So, um, that was just a few months ago. And, uh, yeah, it just gave us, like, we just felt like that was the best choice once he kind of got down to one nap. I really wasn’t able to get much work in anymore. I was really trying to do a lot more in my business. Um, and I think that there’s so much like, yes, there’s this mom guilt of like trying to figure what’s best for the kids in that. But I also think that there’s So much noise out there about like, Oh, you should want to have your kids home with you all the time through the, I don’t know, some people are like homeschool them forever. And if that’s like your path, then that’s great. But that wasn’t mine and my husband’s. And, um, we just decided that some form of childcare was going to be a big part of. How we kind of function in life and try and thrive in the toddler years, which feels impossible sometimes. Um, and again, we don’t have family or other support systems locally to us. So we really do rely on that, like external childcare, um, for. Getting time together, getting time, um, for work, just going to normal appointments and things like that. So that was, yeah, that was like the choice that we made and how we decided to navigate that. Um, let’s see, the best part about keeping my, especially, you know, keeping my youngest home Was just like, I really, it kind of forced me to slow down. I am a very hard Enneagram type three. Like I go like pedal to the metal and having him home with me forced me to really take a step back, slow it down, not grow at the most, the fastest possible pace, but like create a sustainable business. Um, and of course, just get those like little moments with him, like on the days that he was home, I would work during that time, but the rest of the day we would like play, we would run errands, we would just do all of those things that forced me to really like not make my business my entire life. So I did love that. Uh, the most challenging part, I think, especially, When he got to that, like, one nap phase, it’s like, I really had a lot less time to focus on work. And for someone that loves working and loves like having a job and especially a business. Um, that was hard because that was like a big part of feeling like that was my me time. And, um, so I started to lose that a bit and that’s really, you know, when we started deciding like, okay, it’s, it’s time to get a little more help. Um, In the daycare front, um, if I, would I do anything differently if I could probably not? Um, I think I, I think it worked out really well for us and our baby. Whereas I could, you know, I know that with my oldest son, it was really hard for me to like adjust to motherhood. And I was not. Myself for a while after that it might have looked different if I didn’t have to like jump back into teaching full time so quickly with him, but he was a more challenging baby and that’s just the thing like you can never predict what kind of baby you’re going to have. So it. It’s just, um, everyone’s path is going to look different. If I like could give any advice, I would say, ask different people for advice, or, you know, even from this podcast, getting other people, different people’s perspectives and know that, like, take that into consideration. And then. Decide what’s the best option for you and your family because No one’s two stories are going to be the same. No one’s two babies are going to be the same. No one’s two support systems are going to be the same. And so it really just comes down to like what works best for you. What makes you feel the best at the end of the day.     Hi, my name is Molly Knuth. I am the owner of Molly Knuth Media. I’m based in Cascade, Iowa, and I am the mom of four kiddos. Our oldest is in eighth grade at age 13. We also have a sixth grader who is 11, a fifth grader who is 10 and our baby quote unquote baby is a second grader age eight. so my business was founded kind of by accident back in 2016, like the latter half of 2016, when I was very pregnant with my youngest. And when I was growing What would become Molly Knuth Media. I was really just working some hourly jobs and I had my youngest two kiddos at the time and I was pregnant with my third home with me. Our oldest was in kindergarten at that time and he was going to school five days a week, but then the girls were home with me and then we had a baby Coming very soon and right after the baby was born and when my business was really just starting to take shape the kids were home with me and we were Navigating how to Structure our family life so that the kids felt supported. They weren’t being Spending lots and lots of times in a daycare center Even though we have a really great daycare center here in our community. That was new back when our kids were little um We just really wanted me to be able to be home with them. And when I was a teacher, before being a stay at home mom, uh, it really just didn’t make financial sense to be earning a teacher salary and at that time sending three kids to school and daycare. Uh, so we made the decision for me to stay at home. And while the kids were little and I was just had like this little fledgling business, I really did a lot of the work during nap time. But I also brought like their little kiddy table into my office and I just had them like doing some activities while I was working. This was very much brand new. I was like just doing hourly stuff. And like, I really didn’t see that this was going to become like a full time big business. I just was working in the gaps that I could. And, uh, one of the things that I did at the time to kind of build this in was have, like, really building out some systems and structures. And like, admittedly, I’m not the world’s most organized person, Person by any means, but I just found methods that worked for me to keep things organized. So I had like this notebook where I wrote down exactly what I needed to do. I had calendars that kept me organized as far as when client tasks needed to be completed. Um, and then I just worked in the gaps where I could, and we still had days where I took the kids to do fun things, especially in the summertime when it was nice out. Um, but I mostly just tried to work in the gaps and. If the kids, you know, were watching a movie or something, then I would pull out my laptop and work a little bit. I remember being, um, new, like, all the kids were just born. We had, like, a sickness running through the house. And I remember I felt, like, down and out, but I was just working from my laptop in bed, like, building out a client website at the time. Back in 2017, and it just was like, Oh, you know, I was showing my kids what it meant to attend to their needs, but also build a business. And, uh, one of the things that is like my favorite part of those early years of MKM and the chaos of having so many little kids at home at the time was, um, I would host these things weekly called MKMLive in 2017 and 2018. Actually, I think it was just 2018. But it was when, like, live video was really getting up off the ground on Facebook and Instagram. And people really didn’t know how to use social media for their business in a way that, like, fit what people were looking for on social media. In our area, anyway. So I would host these weekly, like, one hour, uh, videos that I called MKM Live, and I would just go live on a topic, and I would teach and instruct, and it would always be during nap time, but inevitably, some of my kids would come and crash the scene. And while I would get frustrated with that, it does It is an endearing, like, this was so cute. They were so little. I can hear their little voices. People loved it when my kids crashed the shot. And it was like just a moment in time that showed how moms, um, I’m not, I don’t want to say like moms can do it all because it’s really hard. It was really hard. Um, but it also is like, it went really fast looking back. And I know Moms don’t want to hear that because when you’re in it, it feels so overwhelming and so big. But it was like, it did go fast and it was so cute. Um, And it was life. That’s just what life was. And I didn’t make excuses and I didn’t, um, really apologize for taking my kids with me when they needed to. Uh, I remember one of my very first client meetings, I brought my baby with me. And I still have, like, fond memories of him sitting on the business owner’s lap because he was being a little fussy and the owner was like, Hey, can I hold him? I’ll hold him while we talk. I was like, Oh, sure. And so, and my kids would come with me, like, if we had to go to a client. Uh, to capture photo or video like the kids came with and it was always just part of my work culture and the business that I built that I wasn’t going to just like push my kids off to the side, like sometimes my kids were part of it and I didn’t apologize for it. And so that was like having those values and intentions as I went into. Developing the business. Once I realized it was valid and it was something that was going to take off, like knowing that I was a mom first, um, and building my business around that was really helpful. Now that’s not to say that there weren’t seasons of hustle or that there were times where I was working too hard and I needed to cut back. Um, but the kids and the family were always there. part of that. Um, and then as the business got busier, I did start implementing daycare and the kids did start going to daycare when I got busier and I needed a little extra help. And then as they were school age, that really, uh, my schedule opened up even more, but now that they’re older, it doesn’t mean it’s easier. Like. The kids get sick. They have a lot of appointments. Uh, we have a special needs child that I have a lot of different scheduling things for. So it never really gets easier, but it just, having this business does allow me to be flexible with the needs of a larger family. Uh, if there’s anything I would do differently, I would have firmer boundaries around my scheduling because I do. tend to be the person who feels like she can do it all and I can always fit things in to the detriment. And I love what I do. I love helping clients and business owners, but sometimes that becomes detrimental in that I’m working past when I said I’d be done. And I am a chronic like, Oh, I can get that done in a half an hour. And it actually takes me an hour and a half. So I wish that I could be firmer about boundaries and time management. Uh, that’s a personal thing though. I do also think that my kids are learning a lot from watching their mom be able to build this business. And, um, I I think that’s something that, even though it’s challenging, it’ll be something that serves them well as they get older and they build their own families and potentially look for careers that are outside of the traditional career path that we might typically see. Uh, I would say that the best part and the most challenging part are the same thing. It’s like that mom guilt that I always want to be doing better. If I’m spending more time in the season on work, then I want to be, I feel guilty because I want to be a better mom. If I’m spending more time with the kids and I have like a wonky work schedule, then I feel really guilty and I wish I was more attentive and available for my work. But I know that that’s always going to be a balance. And there’s no right answer. Nobody has a blueprint. Nobody has it all figured out, even though it might look like it online. Or if there’s a mom in town that you see who appears that she’s doing it all, I guarantee you that she doesn’t feel that way. Um, so I always just kind of tell myself, this is a It is going to be a challenge, it is going to be hard, and it is going to be a moment that I look back on fondly when I am a couple of years down the road. I’ll remember all the good parts, uh, of this season.

Kate Scholtes: Seasons of being nap trapped, seasons of answering emails or DMs when you are feeding your baby at 1am, seasons of staying up late and getting up early, but eventually all seasons end and then there’s a new season.

Jade Boyd: Welcome to part two in this series. Aries of how nine different women kept their kids at home while also growing their business. If you have not yet listened to part one, scroll back a few episodes and make sure you go back to that episode first, because that tees up the idea behind how this episode came to be, why we’re sharing this on the podcast, and also half of the stories, more than half of the stories actually are in that first episode. And so you will not want to miss that first episode, make sure you listen to that one before you come back to this one. But in this episode, we’re going to go through four more stories of women who are in business, who ran their business for some period of time while their kids were at home full-time with them, how they made it work, the best part about doing that, the most challenging part about doing that, and whether or not they regret it, if they would change anything, if they were able to go back to that period of time.

So without further ado, let’s dive into the first story.

Kahla Kristen: So hi, my name is Kahla, and I am a mom of two girls. I have a six year old daughter and a three year old daughter. I’m a former elementary school teacher and a current photographer. So my business is called Kahla Kristen photography. It’s K A H L A. A little bit of unique spelling. and I am located in Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada. So, here in Canada, you can take, , a 12 month mat leave. You can take an 18 month mat leave. And so when I had my first daughter, I decided that I would take an 18 month mat leave.

During that time, my husband was relocated for his job, and so we moved across the province, , and to a city where I knew no one. I had no, no friends, no, no village, no family, and a little baby. And, it kind of came time to start thinking about, , applying to new jobs and, you know, getting my resume all fixed up. And I took all the steps, I got everything ready to go. And I got a phone call for an interview, , at a new school board. And I had just like this moment of clarity. So the interview actually fell on my daughter’s first birthday. And I’m sure if I had said, hey, it’s my daughter’s very first birthday, can I reschedule this job interview? I’m sure they would have done it. However, for me, this just felt like this moment of clarity and this like sign that, hey, maybe I actually don’t want to go back and basically raise other people’s children while someone else is raising mine. And so my husband and I sat down together and we made the decision. We both felt very strongly about, , my staying home.

And so we decided that, yeah, this was going to be what we did, and, you know, my plan was to always go back to teaching. I spent six years teaching. I spent five years prior to that in university, learning how to teach. This was my dream since I was six years old, and I just loved children, it was what I was really good at, however, once I became a mom, it felt very much like my priorities just shifted entirely. And all of a sudden, all of that love and care that I put into my students, I knew that it would be difficult to pour that into my students as well as my own daughter.

So, fast forward, I’m getting to the point where I’m going to apply and I’m like, I’ve been taking photos of friends and I’ve been taking photos of my daughter and, and photography was always something I was passionate about.

And. I was like, hey, what if I just start my own business? And you know, I want this really new, nice camera. And what if I just like take some photos for people and pay for the camera? Like that would be kind of cool. And so it really was just sort of like this natural, unfolding of my business being built.

It really felt very organic. And so, yeah, long story short, here we are, my oldest is six, so it’s five years in, this March. So I actually launched my business on my 30th birthday, and it was one month before my daughter turned one and it was just, you know, I kind of chose that date because I thought this is a big scary thing and I kind of want to make sure that I stick with it.

And I feel like if I choose my birthday, that might be like a significant day that I’m not going to want to just throw in the towel easily. So here we are. I’m almost six years in and I still love it. So I’ve almost been owning my business for as long as I was teaching at this point.

So, to talk a little bit about what our schedule looks like. Obviously at the time I only had one daughter and I really did ease into my business. You know, I was building this new business in a city where I knew nobody. I had no contacts. I had no friends. I had, you know, like zero idea how to even run a business. And so I just sort of like brick by brick started laying the foundation and I did what I thought. I had to do. You know, put myself out there on Instagram, offer sessions to new people that I met, you know, getting my name just passed around out there.

And so it really has been like a beautiful, slow building of my business. It never launched off in a way that felt overwhelming or like I couldn’t catch my breath. There have been moments where I’ve been like, whoa, whoa, I need to slow down a little bit, but for the most part, it really has felt like, you know, year one, year two, year three, it’s just like this slow building, it felt very organic. It’s felt very, very organic.

So, my husband is a shift worker. And so I started working during nap time and in the evenings and he’s home every weekend, fortunately so I would work a lot on the weekends and my schedule was dictated by his schedule and so I could work when he was home. Otherwise I would do my best to kind of fill in the gaps.

So I was really getting pretty much, you know, anywhere between one and three or maybe four hours a day to work on my business, and that really depended on whether or not my husband was home and, you know, what kind of day my daughter was having and you know, how it goes with kids if they’re sick or, if something’s up, if they didn’t sleep all night and they just want a nurse and they just want to snuggle and then the next day would be a day that I really didn’t get much work done some days it was zero. And I would just, be like, oh, I want to pick up my laptop, but this is important.

And so luckily we had almost three or age gap between the girls. So by the time my second daughter came along, I felt like I was starting to get more established in my business and I had a pretty good handle on all of my processes and, you know, making sure that I knew, sort of what I wanted to say yes to and what I wanted to say no to, because that was really challenging at the beginning, especially when you’re new and you feel like you have to say yes to everything that comes your way. That was a hard lesson to basically be like every yes that I say to business is a no that I say to my family and the whole reason I started my business and decided to stay home was to raise my children and so anytime I would feel my business start to kind of take over and , if I started to feel a little frustrated that I wasn’t able to spend time on my work I would kind of have to ground myself again and remind myself why I was doing this in the first place.

And I will say, I have come leaps and bounds from the beginning of my job, until now, because at the beginning it was so easy to get frustrated and now I take Fridays off. I mean, today was an exception. I did work today, but, for the most part, every Friday I take off. Every Monday I work like a nine to five because my husband is home and so Mondays are like my crush the work day, but I’ve figured out a really good rhythm and I’ve become better at being at peace with recognizing when I need to close my laptop and when I need to focus on what’s in front of me. So all this to say, working around my husband’s schedule has been challenging, but I have figured out a good rhythm.

For me, the best part about being able to build my business and be home with my girls has just really been like being there for every single first that my girls have experienced. Like I haven’t really missed anything. And, you know, now that I have a daughter in full time school, it’s really cool that I get to attend the school functions. And I had envisioned doing that as a teacher at my daughter’s school, but as it turns out, she’s in French immersion and I’m not French. So there’s just no way that that would have been a reality, you know, in our lives now, but I had this vision when I had my kids that I wanted to be there like my mom was at the meetings and the dances and the hot lunch days and that was what I wanted to do.

So that has been the best part just really being able to build my business around my personal life. I wholeheartedly believe and again I’ve come to this conclusion more so in the last few years, but I am a mom first and i’m a business owner second, and that is something that I don’t know if I would have that same distinction, if I was a teacher still, because it’s a whole other ballgame.

So that’s been the best part, but definitely it’s come with its challenges. I would say that I had to learn the hard way that some days were just not going to work out. I was not going to open my laptop, I was not going to get through my to do list. Whether I had a sick kid at home or I was tired or the baby didn’t want to nap, or, you know, I had mom guilt because my kids were playing by themselves all day long.

You know I, I found that really hard and the guilt has been very hard. And then I remind myself, like I could be away from them from nine to five every day. So that guilt does not serve a purpose and no mom should feel it. And yet we all do, but I have eventually gotten into a rhythm of working in small chunks. You know, I pick up my laptop, I send off an email, and I check it off my list. I’ve gotten really good at to do lists, because that way I can handle those interruptions a lot better then I would have otherwise. You know, at the beginning, it was really hard for me to get derailed. I would get very frustrated and now it’s just like, okay, I’m going to do this one quick thing and then I’m going to go read a story with my baby.

And I, I actually like that because as someone who has like a really short attention span, I find that working in chunks, I actually am able to pour more into the task and then I’m like, okay, I can take a break. So that’s been challenging, but has actually been like a blessing in disguise. And I mean, at the end of the day, I have had just like the most wonderful clients. They are moms themselves. I specialize in newborns and motherhood and families, and every one of my clients has been, or is in the stage of life that I’m at, or she will be. And so I think that they are just the perfect clients for me because they understand like, hey, I’ve got a sick kiddo home today, I can still do our meeting, but she might be coming into the room and wanting snuggles, I hope that’s okay with you. And I’ve never had a mom be like, oh, that’s weird, why is your daughter there? You know, like they have been amazing.

So, , you know, I don’t think I would do anything differently at this point. Like I, I’m really proud of the business I have built. It has been, as I said, like a very nice, slow build. And I feel like I’m at the point now where my kids need me a lot less. You know, one’s in school full time, the other is in preschool, and then my baby, she’s my three year old. , she is so independent that when we’re home, , she’s often content. Like if I set up painting at the dining room table beside me, she will paint and color and do stickers. And then she’ll go play with her little dollhouse and she’ll build with blocks and she’ll do that for an hour and a half while I’m getting work done and then I’m like, okay, let’s read a book together now. And then we have a snack and then I’m like, okay, quiet down again, you know, so, I’ve been really blessed that she is so independent. My first was not like that. So I got a lot less done when she was younger, but you know, I think as moms, the longer we’re in it, the more experience we get, and really I’ve just had like an overwhelming sense of clarity, the further I’ve gotten into my business and motherhood, of just like my priorities in life and the things that really matter.

And, my business is so important to me. It is like a third baby, but my kids are more important and at the end of the day, that’s, that’s why I’ve done all of this. And, yeah, it’s been a really awesome experience. And so. I mean, I feel really lucky that I decided to take this step because I think it was a very scary step to take.

That said, I did know that I could always go back to teaching if I wanted to. At this point, I don’t plan to, I think my business has become quite successful, and it’s not something that I would like to abandon. But,, who knows what the future holds. When my kids are full time, school, and then off, it’s hard to say what will come of, my career. But, yeah, this is, this has been a wonderful experience.

So I really hope that, sharing my story has sort of resonated with someone. Has kind of affirmed your choice to stay home and maybe work alongside your babies growing up, and I just think that getting to witness every milestone and every moment, the good and the bad, , it is hard.

It is a full time job, but, you know, it’s something that we will never regret. So, , yeah, I hope this has been really helpful.

Emily Reuschel: My name is Emily Reuschel and I empower women through my Gather and Growth podcast, mastermind groups, and signature workshops. By fostering deep connections and meaningful conversations, I help women deeply know, love, and trust themselves as they design lives filled with purpose, joy, and fulfillment. We live on my husband’s family farm in West Central Illinois, and my kids are seven and a half, five and a half, and just turned one.

I have not always been an entrepreneur. I actually started as an elementary school teacher. And then at the time that my kids were little, I was working in the nonprofit space. So we relied on full time daycare during the early years. And when I moved to full time entrepreneurship, my kids were in pre K and daycare and I kept them as such because I was really overwhelmed by the idea of trying to do both at the same time.

I knew I needed to give myself space and capacity to figure it out, and so then that turned into them going to kindergarten and full time pre K. And so for many years at the beginning of my business, I had school age kids and fit in my work while they were at school, which is something that worked really, really well for our family.

I like having the distinction between family time and work time. And honestly, even in the early years of business where I was doing way too much, , I held a pretty firm boundary around work time versus family time, which is actually different than what life had looked like even when I was working outside of the home.

Now, a few years ago, a curveball was thrown my way, and an unexpected pregnancy came into the mix, and that’s when my life and business got turned upside down. I came into it thinking, oh my goodness, I’m so much more self aware than I’ve ever been before, like, this pregnancy ain’t gonna slow me down, I’m gonna know exactly what I need to do to feel my best, and lol, I was very sick while I was pregnant.

Which really pushed me into a point of growth in my business, of having to whittle down to what is the minimum to keep my business functioning, and on the trajectory I wanted to without doing too much or adding more to my plate. And so my pregnancy really set me up for a postpartum period where I was already moving in the direction of minimalism, thanks to Jade. I was working with her at the time of being pregnant and immediately postpartum. And then, just as soon as I thought that I had that figured out, I had a two month old and had felt really good about what I was going to be able to do in my business with my daughter at home with me, our house flooded.

38, 000 gallons of water went through our house. And so it really pushed me to walk the walk and talk the talk. And so for me, over the course of this year, my daughter just turned one. I have had to get really intentional with how I’m spending my time and who I am bringing in to our mix to be able to make this successful.

I know that I do not do my best work when my kids are at home with me. It is, in my opinion, one of the hardest things to do and something that leaves me feeling completely not enough in all areas. If I’m trying to work and be attentive to my kids or my baby, I feel like I’m not serving them the way I want to, I’m not showing up with my full attention or devotion. And it is taking me a hundred times longer to do my work. And my brain is just constantly trying to do everything at the same time, which leaves me feel like I’m never doing enough or being enough in either area. And so I don’t know if this is the advice that you’re looking for, but where it works really well for me and our family is, how am I getting support in child care so that I can have my focused work time so that I’m able to show up in other ways?

And so, sometimes that looks like spending one day a week with grandma. We also have utilized babysitters who come to a house during the day, certain days a week for a certain period of time so I can have focused work time. A lot of the work that I really love doing and that I’m exceptional at happens on calls, which is hard to take with a toddler running around. And so I, you know, align my childcare time with when I need to be focused on that. And then also with the backend type things in my business that I, you know, are also really hard to do with a baby on my lap. And so that gives me the ebb and flow to be able to be present in the times that I want to be.

With her, I do still have a lot of time with my baby at home with me while the big kids are at school, , where I’m not working. But carving out the dedicated space helps me have the capacity to know where I want to show up, how I want to show up and to do that to the full extent in the given time that I have.

So just from a really tactical standpoint, my daughter typically, or even during the summer, I guess I can elaborate on that, my kids go to my mother in law’s during the day on Mondays, they’re with my mom during the day on Fridays, and then we utilize other types of child care, perhaps, on chunks of the day, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

I think I have kind of illuminate several moments where I, in really good ways and in really hard ways was trying to do both in the early years of my youngest’s life. You know, I knew we were not interested in sending her to daycare when she was really young. It’s not something we really wanted to approach until five or six months or so. And so I have a lot of gratitude for what it was like to have a little tiny baby on me while also trying to take calls or being able to write emails or create content, but I can also look back and see the times that I was massively overwhelmed by trying to do that, and it wasn’t necessarily enlightenment.

Would I change it? No, it was 1000 percent the hard that I chose, but it for me was never meant to be a forever solution. So the cool thing about being a business owner is you get to design what that looks like and , many things can be hard and so it’s a matter of what is the hard that you choose that makes the most sense for your family in the season that you’re in.

The best part about being a business owner and having my daughter or even my kids home with me, you know, when they’re home sick, or they don’t have school on a certain day, is that I have the kind of job that allows me to be present. And so maybe it’s rearranging what my work day is, maybe it’s changing my expectations for the week, but I do get to do both in a way that I would not be able to if I was still working outside of the home.

That is definitely the best part. , the most challenging thing about being a business owner with kids home with me is that constant feeling like I’m not doing enough in either category and having divided attention and getting frustrated with my kids because I’m trying to do my work or getting frustrated that I’m losing my train of thought with my work while I’m also trying to focus on my kids.

And so that’s why it really works well for me to have divine parameters around family time, versus work time. And sure, there is some times where that bleeds through. I’m working on something in the evening that I needed to get done. That honestly rarely happens. Or there’s time that, like I said, a kid’s sick, plans change, babysitter cancels, grandma can’t watch, and I’m rearranging my work day to accommodate. And I do not take for granted what a gift it is to be in a situation that I have that choice. ,

Looking back, would I do anything differently? You know, I look back to when my oldest was a baby. And I was working full time and that was the only choice I felt like I had, and we had so many struggles with daycare. There is just very few daycare options in my area, much less ones that we felt like we aligned with and there were so many circumstances where someone would stop doing daycare or they decided they didn’t want to take babies, so we had to move both of our kids. Like, I think my son was in the hands of like 13 different people before he ever went to preschool.

Some of those family, many of those friends, but still it was a lot. And I look back on that season and think, everything would have been different if I had the business that I have now. If I had the financial means to hire help in home, like I do now for my youngest. But that wasn’t the part of the journey that I’m on, and so it’s a piece of our story and I didn’t have then what I have now or know, then what I know now.

When I look back to the past year and a half of my life, I would not change anything that I actually had control over. Like we got thrown some curveballs like a house flood that for sure changed the way that I was able to run my business and parent at the same time, but I really am proud for the way that we handled those situations and the capacity that I had to show up in the ways that I needed to in my business and as a mom.

And the most important lesson that I’ve learned in this area is that everything has a season, and in fact, this year I have had financially the most success in my business that I ever had before, but it has required me to approach my business differently and make, , new choices and try new things and step outside my comfort zone and raise my prices and serve people differently, which in the long run has been really good for me and my business and my clients.

There have been other things, projects, ideas, initiatives that theoretically I would have loved to bring to life this year, but could tell in real time, this is not the time for it. There will be another season for it. And I look forward to that one.

Dolly Delong: Hey there, my name is Dolly Delong. I am the business owner of two different types of businesses. I own a family photography business based in middle Tennessee called Dolly Delong photography, where I serve families, and I also have another side of my business called Dolly Delong education and that’s where I run systems and workflow education. And I have a podcast called The Systems Of Workflow Magic Podcast. I have a YouTube channel and it’s all dedicated to helping small business owners who are running the show on their own, essentially to teach them about the importance of systems, workflows, SOPs, and operations, and how to operate the back end of their business one system at a time. And in the last two years, that has emerged into me being a launch strategist. So I teach a lot of launch strategies as well to small business owners.

So that’s a little bit about myself and I am also a mom of two boys. So ages soon to be six and soon to be two, and how I was able to keep my kids home while running my business. So in full disclosure, I used to work in higher education before having kids. Even when I was pregnant with my firstborn, and he is six, so this was like six years ago when I was pregnant with him, I had this grand plan that I would continue to work in higher education because I, in my mind, I had a very cushy job everything like, you know benefits everything. I was comfortable, I was very comfortable and even though I had a business at the time a side business It wasn’t consistent with the income, like most businesses are, beginner businesses are.

So that terrified me, so I wanted my consistent paycheck. So I had a plan and with my husband, we were like, okay, I will ask my boss at the time to see if I could work part time and still work, like still doing the mom thing, but then still do the. 9 to 5 somehow and get that consistent paycheck. And I was the only one in my department who did what I did.

Alright? So it’s not like another person did what I did. And so I was very confident that I would get, like, continue my job. Like, plus I had been working there for eight years and I had built some good relationships. I was really good at what I did, and so when I had told my boss that I was pregnant and what I would like to do, my vision, I’d shared with him and, my husband knew the meeting going in, like he helped me practice and everything. My boss said it sounded like a great idea and then he in turn sent out a company, not a company wide, but a department wide email saying that I was leaving so there’s that. So I was actually, in 2018, kind of forced into, , making a decision like I, well, I’m not gonna have a job in a few months and I’m about to have a baby. And so do I open up my business full time or do I just, like, stay at home? Like, and I wanted to do both cause I’m very, I, I love working, I love working, but I also have always wanted to be a mom. I love being a mom. I love being a stay at home mom.

And that, that has been, I feel like it’s, I am admitting this, like I have so many different layers of my dreams, and it’s really good to hear other people admit like they also want to be a mom and a stay at home mom and also work in like, they have the drive to do both. So that’s where I am in life. So in 2018, I was definitely facing that. And , that forced me to open up my business full time, which was at the time photography. What I didn’t mention was I had been doing photography as a side business ever since 2008, but it was totally on the side. And then from 2008 to 2018, my income from photography was starting to match my income from my, full time job. And so, I jumped into my business full time.

So I had, birthed two babies in 2018, my full time business, and then my real baby, the most important baby, my son. And so that is kind of how I started my entrepreneurial journey. And I feel like I just jumped into the deep end and had a lot of unrealistic expectations. Like, I thought, oh, I can work when the baby sleeps and I can sleep train him and I can do X, Y, Z. I just, I just had all of these unrealistic expectations.

And also, I I looking back on my brain in 2018, I was in panic mode because I didn’t know how to run a business. And I wanted to create income and I didn’t have like that foundation, a good business foundation. I, I was literally learning on the go. I didn’t know how to manage the money in my business. I, I really did not know what I was doing.

It was all out of fear because I was thrown into like, hey, you’re, you’re not coming back to work for us. This is your last day at your full time job, and you’re about to start a family. And so it was very scary. Thankfully, I know this, my husband and I were financially fine. , we had just become debt free, my husband is very smart and savvy with money, very wise with money. So we were going to be fine. So I don’t want to paint the picture, like we were going to be destitute, but I am very, like, I really like a plan. I really like a good foundation. So starting in 2018, I just knew I had to start learning about running a business.

And then at the same time, I was also learning how to be a mom. And so, it was a giant struggle, like daily, inner battle for me. Because I, on one hand, I was so excited about being a mom, I wanted to go all in. And on the other hand, I also wanted to go all in on running a business successfully. And you can You can do both. I believe that, but you can’t do both like 100 percent mentally all the time. Like, it’s, it’s, you will burn out. And I was burning out really quickly. Sometimes to a point of where I would prioritize my business over my son. Like, I would want him to nap longer or like I would get irritated if I needed to do something with him and it got to a point where it’s very like I’m being so open and honest, like looking back on the beginning years of my business, I did not prioritize, like enjoying, enjoying the newborn stage, enjoying being a mother.

And so, there was a lot of days and a lot of hard conversations my husband had with me, he was like, Dolly, where are, just like, where are your priorities? Is it with your business? Cause I support you and your business, but like our son who is a human comes first and it was, and I did not necessarily want to send him to daycare. One, it’s so expensive. It is so expensive, I might as well like, give over my entire, like, check, whatever I receive from my business over to daycare and not receive any other profit. Like that’s how expensive it is. And so, we found a happy medium and we hired a babysitter to come in and watch my son at least once a week so I can like develop some sort of cadence and schedule for myself. And so I started working in my business, I did the nap time hustle, but then I also knew I needed a little bit more breathing time and so I had to create schedules for my work and then when I was going to work, when the babysitter came to the house, and that ended up being like 15 to 20 hours a week.

And it wasn’t like big chunks, like three or four hours. It was two, up to two hours a, day, like in the morning, in the evening. So I worked very odd hours, but I found a rhythm. And then. I realized like when my son was about two or three, like it took me a while to get used to this rhythm. So I’m not going to paint it like, oh, in a month, I figured it out because for any of you with kids, you’ll discover that kids are, especially in the newborn stage, like they change every month.

There are milestones, like they drop their nap, they drop, like, they meet new growth spurts. And so, my schedule was changing based off of my son’s milestones. And so, I worked around that and so, if I could go back, I wish I could just tell myself to enjoy those milestones because I did not. I just wanted to have consistency and that was so agitating to me that I didn’t have consistency, but things changed for me when my husband and I had our second. And I knew then, like I had been deep in prayer and I had asked God, please God, like help me to enjoy my time with my second, because the things of this world, like I can gain everything, but I have very fleeting time with my sons.

And also with a relationship with my husband is the most important in a relationship with my sons is more important than earning an income. Yes. Earning an income for the business to run the business. It’s important, but is it the ultimate? No, my ultimate is well, one to honor God and two, like, to enjoy the blessings that he has given me. And that blessings for me are a marriage that is healthy and two boys that are healthy and they need a mom. So my second was born in 2022 and that was a completely different story from my firstborn. I enjoyed every milestone. Yes. Like I was still doing the nap time hustle, I was actually more involved with my businesses than ever before, but I had to relinquish that control of needing a definite schedule. And it took a lot of prayer. And I did still end up working like two, maybe three hours a day during that first year of my second son’s life.

And then we were still having a sitter come once a week. So I got a lot of my work done during the days she would come over and watch the boys. So I don’t want to make it sound like, It’s all glamorous and easy. It’s not, like, you really have to take a hard look at your priorities. You have to take a hard look at, okay, like, what can you do right now?

What are the tasks that need to be done? Versus, like, what do you wish could be done? I had to finish the tasks that needed to be done. To run my business, to be sustainable. And I am actually like, I have more time now because my first born just started kindergarten. So he’s in school five days a week.

And then my second son is about to turn two and we found a mother’s day out program for him to go to two days a week through our church. And so he goes twice a week. And so I work during the times that both boys are gone. That’s when I work. And I have more time. It’s not like 40 hours a week or 30 hours a week, but I have a more consistent schedule.

And is it hard? Yes. Because I have a lot of goals. I have a lot of dreams for my business. I love working. I love what I do, but I love, I want to enjoy the blessings that God has given me. And I firmly believe that I, I will be given more time in the future as my sons grow up and they become a little bit more independent and they don’t, they’re like either in school full time or they’re going to be doing other activities.

I can, I’ll find more time doing work in that area. And then another thing that has helped me out too, is just honing in on my money making areas of my business. And I have been able to just focus in on that versus being so scattered and throwing spaghetti at the wall and saying, okay, I think I can make money this way.

Like I know what my money making revenue streams are. And so I focus on like three different moneymaking streams for my businesses. And I have, like, I just have systems set up for myself. Again, this has been like trial and error through the years, but the biggest factor of me being able to be a stay at home mom and operate my business.

Like one, having help at least once a week and factoring that into the home budget. Two, knowing that my schedule is going to be shifting and changing based on like when I had babies, like based on their schedules and being okay with that and relinquishing that control over and still enjoying them and not being mean in my head, like, why are you doing this to me? Like, they’re not against me. Like they’re not, they’re kids. They’re like helpless. They need me. So relinquishing that control. And then three, being okay with taking like literal baby steps in my business of growth. And when I relinquish that control, I have more peace and I still have that drive in me, but I have a little bit more peace in me.

So I hope this is helpful, encouraging to someone. I know it’s not a well buttoned up answer. It’s constantly evolving, constantly changing, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I would definitely, if my husband and I like had an unlimited supply of money and, and we were able to send our kids to daycare, I wouldn’t do it.

I would not. I’m so glad that my oldest had that time at home with me and I like, because we built a really strong foundation for him and we had that ability to, I don’t know, I feel like he was really ready for kindergarten because my husband and I poured so much into him at home academically and just like socially and then that’s what we’re doing for our youngest as well.

So, no, I probably wouldn’t change anything. Maybe hiring a sitter for one extra day. I don’t know, but I just am happy with what God has been teaching me so far. I wish I, I wish I was less stubborn so that I could have learned those lessons early on, but thankfully I’m so thankful for God’s grace in my life and I’m thankful he’s gifted me with these children and I’m thankful he’s gifted me with a passion and a zest for my businesses.

And I just, I relinquish it over to him and I pray that he can continue to guide me as my business grows and as my love for my family grows. So I hope this was encouraging to someone. Thanks for listening.

Kate Scholtes: Hello, my name is Kate and I am a podcaster, speaker, soon to be author, and online business coach. I live in Arizona for now, but we are actually moving to Idaho in the new year. So in the next six ish months or so, and I have two little boys, Luke, who is going to be four in December and Jackson, who is two and a half.

I have been an entrepreneur for about seven, years, and a mom for almost four and to say that that was a transition is like the understatement of the year, but I knew when I started my business that I wanted to be at home with my kids, but also provide financially for my family. So it was a lot of trial and error to see, what it was going to look like for us.

And honestly, it’s sometimes still is because my kiddos are still pretty young. At first it looked like only working during naptimes and after my kids went to bed. Sometimes if my husband didn’t have to work because his schedule is kind of wonky, he would take over for a couple of hours and I would lock myself in my office and just get as much done as I possibly could.

And, it was, like I said, a transition because I was used to, you know, being able to sit down at my desk and work for however long and work on whatever projects I wanted to work on, but when you become a mom and your time is so much more limited, especially if you decide to have your kids at home with you, it’s just, it’s just a lot more different.

It’s a lot more pockets in your day kind of work and that kind of schedule, at least it was for me. And then when I was pregnant with my second, we actually got a gym membership that had childcare two and a half hours a day. And that was like our first, like, I guess, consistent childcare option that we had. And so I started utilizing that to number one, like get a quick workout in, but then I would get like an hour and a half to two hours of a work block in, which was super helpful, especially on the days that my kids wouldn’t sleep. They wouldn’t nap. You know, if you know, you know, and so it was just super helpful to have that as like a backup, but also kind of extend even my work time.

Let’s say that, we went to the gym in the morning. It’s really great for the kids because they’re able to play and do all the different things, they have a bunch of activities, all that kind of stuff, and then we’d go home, have lunch, and then they would take a nap. And so, during kind of those two blocks, I was able to get you know, sometimes two to four to four and a half hours of work between the two of them and that was really beneficial at that time. And something that, you know, we just got a little bit creative with. And then earlier this year in 2024, we actually hired our date night babysitter to help out two to three mornings a week. So she was helping from like 9am to noon, sometimes 8am to noon, two to three days a week and that was really, really great. Especially as my oldest stopped taking a nap and I was able to kind of block that time for calls or podcast recordings or whatever that looked like.

And then in July of this year, we started putting our kids in part time preschool. And so now they go to preschool four days a week. And honestly, it has been such a blessing for all of us. The boys love it. They love all of their friends, they love their teachers, they are absolutely thriving in it. And not only am I able to get solid, like predictable work time in, but my husband and I actually use Mondays, which ironically is today that I’m recording this, he has Mondays off every week. And so we use Mondays as like our day date days because he’s off on Mondays. So we’re able to like get lunch together. And then we actually go grocery shopping together, which is especially nice because that feels like a luxury when you have toddlers, right?

Grocery shopping with toddlers is a whole different kind of adventure. So that’s really nice for all of us, because, you know, now my husband and I are also getting that intentional time. He is also getting his master’s degree right now. And so, it’s funny because when the boys started going to preschool, I was able to stop working after they go to bed, because that was, you know, like I said, a lot of my schedule was working during nap time and working after the boys went to bed, and then when they went and started going to pre-school I was able to stop doing that. So my husband and I kind of got back that time together, and now he’s in his master’s program and so he has to do school work a lot of the times after bedtime and all that good stuff.

So it’s nice to be able to utilize childcare for also not just work, but you know, appointments or dates or grocery shopping solo. So it’s been really nice to kind of be in this season, and it’s just, you know, totally different from where we were, you know, two years ago, even.

So the best part about keeping my kids at home with me, honestly, it was and has just been a dream come true. I was a teacher before I was an entrepreneur and I were still teaching. I would likely only see my kids about three hours a day during the week, and now I get to see them like eight to ten hours a day on my work days, depending how early they wake up because I got blessed with early risers.

My mom jokes that it’s karma because I was an early riser. So they’re just, you know, it’s just payback. But i also get to pursue and fulfill my calling within entrepreneurship, which is to encourage and empower other women to create a life that they love because frankly, life is too short to do anything other than that, you know. Having the flexibility of being able to do both and being able to, you know, have that time with my kids, but also pursue the things that I love.

And, what I think I am meant to do has been incredible. Obviously there have been lots of challenging parts as well. I think the most challenging part for me was the unpredictability. It’s easier now that we do have consistent childcare through preschool, but you know, those first like three and a half years of juggling both motherhood and business was really tough, like in terms of scheduling, like you’re, you know, working in the pockets of your day. Even when we had our babysitter, like, you know, sometimes she would, , not be able to make it last minute. And I had calls booked that day. So it’s just like a lot to juggle, you know, sometimes the kids nap, sometimes they don’t, sometimes they’re on a call with you.

Sometimes you’re, you know, on your batching game with content. And then other times you’re, you know, recording your podcast late after bedtime in your closet. There’s just a lot of unpredictability with it. And I think that was the most difficult for me. With them in preschool now four days a week, I feel like I’m able to compartmentalize work and life and really separate it a lot more I’m able to, with work, like be all in with work during my work time and then, when my kids are home and it’s like mom time, I’m all in and present with mom time. And I feel like when I was kind of juggling and had, I don’t know, all the balls in the air kind of thing, and working the pockets of my day and trying to make it work during naptime and after the kids went to bed, it was really hard to not let work bleed into mom life and then mom life bleed into work.

And, I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, but I think that it can be a hard thing. And that it now feels more manageable, because I’m able to be a lot more present in what I am doing when it’s more separated, if that makes sense. But I also think that while that’s challenging and while there are challenging aspects to it, I think it’s really rad that we live in a time where it’s possible for women to do both and do both well.

And while you might not be able to get as much done as maybe you once were able to before you had kids, and some things might have to be put aside for a season, I think motherhood actually makes us better business owners, because we start to realize really quickly what is a priority and what things aren’t. You know?

Looking back, I honestly wouldn’t have changed a thing. I made a huge pivot in 2022 where I actually burned my whole first business to the ground, and I started from scratch because that first business while very successful was like out of alignment with my life after I became a mom. And I burnt down that business and started my new business, which is what you see today at six months pregnant with a 17 month old on my hip and no childcare.

And truthfully, it was, while some people would say like the worst time to start a business and like start over and make a pivot, it was the best thing that I could have done. It was no walk in the park by any means, and I’m still learning every single day, but we’re out here doing the dang thing, you know.

I think that if there was one thing I could say to myself back then, or to any mom who is in the thick of it, trying to figure it all out and trying to figure out how all the puzzle pieces fit together, I would just encourage her, you, myself, back then, to remember that every season is just that…. a season. Seasons of being nap trapped, seasons of answering emails or DMs when you are feeding your baby at 1am, seasons of staying up late and getting up early, but eventually all seasons end and then there’s a new season. It’s corny and cheesy, but it really does go by so fast. And if you’re in the thick of it, I just hope that you know how seen and valued you are, whatever decision you make when it comes to keeping your kids at home or not and utilizing childcare or if it’s a blend of both, you are such a good mom and you know what is best for you and your family. You’re doing a really great job and I’m rooting for you.