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.