Managing your home is never easy especially when you have multiple businesses to deal outside your home. Every mom does a lot of daily juggling, prioritizing how to face her own unique challenges and circumstances.  So you definitely need to come up with a plan how to effectively manage your work and be able to stay effective being a mom. It’s never an easy task but it’s actually the most rewarding and something a mompreneur will always be proud of doing.

Going to work, meetings or even business trips is always a pleasure for me. Yet, being a mom, it also brings a feeling of guilt. Being away from Kyle is always not an easy thing. But sometimes even when I’m with Kyle, I feel like I should be doing something or rather working.

These are my daily struggles that I think will never end and I will continue to do my best being at work and as a mother. Sometimes, I wonder if I can even be good at it. But years of juggling between a demanding career and being a mom to Kyle has taught me at least these things to stay effective:

INVOLVE YOUR PARTNER

Just like in business, I can never make it work without the help of my team.  Having your partner help you no matter how busy they are will not only make your life easier, but you’re also encouraging bonding moments between your kids and their daddy. If there are times that I know I couldn’t attend to Kyle for a certain period of time, I would ask his dad to spare some time or adjust his schedule so he could fill for me.

ITS OKAY TO BE UNBALANCED

Just like Aliza and Danielle of MOM, Incorporated, I don’t like the word “balance”, I’d rather call it juggle. For me that’s reality and I actually do that every day to stay effective.

Remember that you have two roles that come with different responsibilities. For example, I needed to answer an important phone call when I’m playing with my son. It won’t hurt if you keep your child busy with his or her activity or have someone to replace you even just for few minutes so you can attend to something that requires your immediate attention. Just make sure that you get back to him or her soon as you’re done. Your child depends on you and so as your employees. So yes it’s okay to be unbalanced, what’s important is you get things done.

CREATE BOUNDARIES

You juggle everyday but it doesn’t mean that you can juggle every time. You still need to set boundaries with every situation.  I used to say “yes” to everything even to a point where I needed to meet a client late night/midnight or even on weekends. But then you want to keep your business, family, and sanity intact. So I learned how to say “no”. Again, prioritizing is key here after all, you’re the CEO or “Chief of Everything”.

For example, I allot my dinner time with Kyle and Kyle alone. It’s an automatic bonding time with Kyle or for our workouts together. I strictly impose this even with my husband. He used to ask me to go to work-related affairs with him, but he doesn’t do that anymore now. This took the burden of deciding whether to go or not to go off my back. And that makes me happy.

DELEGATE WORK

Decide which tasks you need to do yourself and which ones can be handed over to someone else. And yes, hiring the best people matters a lot.

This is especially true when it comes to those who will be around Kyle. For instance, when Kyle is scheduled for his regular checkup, (which is definitely a priority for me) but I need to attend to something else that’s also important, I would delegate to the best person I know who can handle it. I hired the most responsible nannies. They know by heart what I like and don’t like when it comes to taking care of Kyle. This gives me some sort of peace of mind.

GET YOUR KIDS BUSY WHEN YOU ARE BUSY

As a modern and independent mom, I wanted Kyle to grow not being so dependent of me and of his dad. To achieve this goal and staying effective as the CEO in the business world and my home, I already made a very clear decision to provide Kyle a regular activity routine since he was young. Kyle is 2 years old now but before he even turned one, I already started sending him to infant activity classes as early as 6 months, swimming classes at 11 months, and pre-school classes at 1-year old. During his classes I have the time to do whatever I needed to do. Best of all, it has provided Kyle the best exposure he can ever have. He’s able to learn so many things which make it a win-win situation.

GET SOME “ME TIME” AND DON’T FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT

I used to remember when I was tied at home after Kyle was born. I was very tired and would cry because I wanted to work while being a mom, but I just can’t. I felt like there’s another side of me missing. And one day I decided to go out for some spa and have my “me time” trying to convince myself that I deserve it. But then when I was there, I felt so guilty and so selfish. That “me time” didn’t go well because I was physically there supposedly relaxing but my mind is at home.

Remember that guilt is a working mom’s #1 enemy. Probably the very reason why I’ve been sickly after giving birth is because I wanted to be a super mom and my situation got worst and worst when I was back at work because I’ve been guilty. It led me to a much harder situation which made me ineffective as a parent.

This has actually been the worst lesson for me as a mom. I realized this is not smart. I should not succumb to my emotions. First things first, I needed to stop feeling guilty. I pushed myself to get some rest at night and have someone else watch Kyle as he sleep so I could get enough rest and gain back my health. This initial step has taught me how to deal with stress. Eventually, I learned how to juggle my everyday life which enabled me to handle most situations a lot better with lesser stress. I don’t need to get myself overwhelmed; being overworked and overwhelmed never did me any good.

If you think about it, all I do to stay effective connects to one another.

• You can make use of your “me time” when you’re keeping your child busy.
• Delegate by involving your partner.

Mompreneurs are doing what they do in order to lead a fulfilling life. It’s not for the money. In fact, we would still want to be managing our own businesses even if money weren’t an issue, right? Being a mompreneur is extremely rewarding. It has helped me show Kyle the importance of discipline, independence, and sense of responsibility.

I’d like to hear and know your thoughts about keeping a balance between business/work matters and mommy duties. Remember, these are not rules. But it will surely be helpful to a mommy who hasn’t figured out what would work in similar situations. I would appreciate if you can leave a comment below so other mommies will learn from you too.

I’m proud of you MOMS!