Maintaining a work-life balance has become a constant struggle for individuals with family responsibilities. Today working from home is a new normal. Many people choose to work from home as it allows them the comfort of their homes and families. One of the most popular career choices is being a work-at-home mom.
Being a parent is a difficult phase of life. But, working from home has made it easy for working parents to stay close to their kids, care for them and be with them all the time.
It might sound easy to work while you lie in your bed with those cute pajamas on and get to be with your kids all the time. But this work style has challenges and becomes even more difficult for work-at-home moms.
Let us explore some of the work-from-home mom struggles that working-moms face and how they can overcome them.
Balancing Family and Work Responsibilities
Many working moms struggle to balance their time between their children, household chores, and working on their businesses. It is essential to set boundaries, prioritize tasks, and create a schedule that works for you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the work you have on your plate at once.
Not Getting Enough Sleep
Working mom struggles are real when you have a toddler who is up all day and keeps you running around. It means that you are up late answering emails or doing other tasks for the office resulting in less time for sleep at night and less energy throughout the day. Don’t overdo it, and make a good schedule for your day to avoid getting overburdened.
Feeling Isolated
It is hard to feel lonely when surrounded by people in your office. But, when you choose to work from home, you are all by yourself. It is okay to feel lonely because you are working alone with no colleagues around you.
To deal with this situation, you can play with your toddler and have some fun in-between working hours. It will energize and stress-free because kids boost your mood and make you happy.
Staying Focused
Managing distractions can be difficult when you switch between several tasks in real time. Mom struggles are even more distressing when you have a toddler who might cry any time, want you to be with him to play, ask you to watch them do something, and even make your whole house a mess.
Dividing the tasks into small chunks can help you, and try finishing most of the work when your baby is asleep.
Poor Connection
The worst thing that can hit you is poor when you are close to the deadline. Well! Waiting for a better connection to get the work done can be stressful. But it is useless at the same time because you don’t know when it will be back.
Instead of staring at the screen and feeling anxious, you can use the time to be with your toddler and attend to their needs. This way, you can save time and work once the internet is working.
Never-ending Tasks
One of the most common issues working moms have is to balance the time spent between work and family. Working moms are constantly in touch with the office systems, and there are no breaks or moments of silence during which you can relax. You keep thinking about what you need to do next, so it’s hard not to get overloaded. To overcome the stress of these overwhelming duties, you should take some time to breathe and meditate to collect your energy. Once you feel re-energized, you can get back to work.
No Me-Time
Working moms have to work day in and day out to fulfill the responsibilities of family and work. It can be very tiring, and you might have no time for yourself. Kids can be the center of your world, and it has nothing wrong with that. But to avoid stress and burnout, you should have some me-time. Go out with your friends and send your kids to play house so that you have time to yourself to go out freely and have fun.
Unplugging After Working Hours
One of the biggest work-from-home mom struggles is unplugging from work hours due to a deadline and managers asking for work at odd hours.
The best way to be productive is to create an achievable to-do list at the beginning of the day and get those tasks completed by the day’s end. You can set clear expectations that you won’t be able to work after a certain time, which isn’t a problem if there is any urgent work demand.
In this fast-paced world, we constantly want to achieve something or the other. In the constant rush of having everything working moms tend to compromise themselves. Being a mom, it is not wrong to make your child the center of your world or work endlessly, knowing you can balance things well. But as work-at-home moms, you should try not to overburden yourself because health and wellness are essential to keep things going. Also, children are dependent on you too.