I am a mother who wants the best for her kids. I am also an ambitious woman who loves running a business. Who says the two can't mix?
I have an amazing husband, he works hard and makes a good income, so I have been fortunate that I haven't had to work outside the home since we had children. It has always been important to me that one of us be able to stay home when the kids are small, I just don't trust anyone else. This decision has, of course, earned some hateful remarks and disrespect from other women who don't agree with being a stay at home mom. My response to them has always been a friendly "You do what works for your family, and I'll do what works for mine".
However, I have also always dreamed of owning my own business. When the two youngest boys were getting ready to start pre-school, I began thinking of ideas. I decided on cake decorating as my first home based business, I am a terrific cook and baker so it seemed a perfect fit for me. I did a little "training" on my own, applied for a business license, and the rest is history. My cake business has been quite successful for a home bakery, I average about 6-7 cakes per weekend. But with success comes negativity (and sometimes jealousy) from others, including family members. Are my priorities in the right place? Am I putting too much emphasis on making money? Why don't I work a traditional job? My response is pretty much the same as before.
At this point, I made a decision that I never thought I would make. I took my youngest daughter (9th grade) and the two youngest boys (Kindergarten) out of public school and decided to teach them myself at home. I had lost all respect for the public school system, I knew I could teach them so much better. At first I assumed that I would need to give up cakes until after the boys' graduation. But then I thought that I would try to juggle both and see what happened. It was a little rocky at first, until we got a good schedule down. I reduced the number of orders I took and gradually added more as we became more efficient. We are now going on our 3rd year of homeschooling. My daughter will be a senior this year, after graduation she will be going into the RN program at a local University. The boys will be in 3rd grade and they love it! We have an awesome homeschool co-op, with roughly about 300 local homeschool members. But negativity comes from ALL sides now. On one hand, there are the cynics who love to tell me their opinions on homeschooling. Some have the best of intentions, others are just nosey. But none of them have done any research, they are totally mis-informed and their opinions are based on the popular myth that homeschooled kids are lacking in social skills and that their education is inadequate. Definitely not true. On the other hand, there are other homeschool parents who think that I am taking too much time away from my kids' schooling by running a business.
I have come to the realization that you cannot please everyone, especially if you're a woman. There are so many different opinions on what women should and should not do. While it is sometimes discouraging to hear all the negativity coming from all sides, all I have to do is look at my family and my own happiness to know that I am making the best decisions for us.
Until next time,
Linda