By Emily Saunders

While I was recently vacationing in Mexico I had a bright idea. Moms sometimes have bright ideas when our brains are relaxed for 6 days and we have time and space to think.  

I was thinking about myself and many of my friends who in one way or another are our "own bosses".  What I mean is we are self-employed. The mompreneur might do lots of things.  Some Moms run their own brick and mortar businesses, some are specialtiy consultants, some are on the online space, some create really cool things and sell on Etsy, some rock the MLM world selling products and some do all of it.  

Mompreneurs are generally not well understood and we often feel kind of lost between those categories of "working mom" and "stay at home mom".  It can be a frantic place. My idea... let's talk about this in a realistic manner that helps moms understand that normal is an ideal not reality.

We are blessed to live in a world that provides options.  We no longer HAVE to decide to 1. Work or 2. Stay Home.  A recent study showed that over 50% of Stay-At-Home moms also generate income.  We have options.  It's a true blessing, but this blessing, like most, comes with challenges.

When I came home from vacation my list was 2 miles long.  Yes I needed to grocery shop and hug my kids and do laundry, but I also needed to jump on some big projects and get organized for the week.  Feeling overwhelmed, I took a break for a walk with the dog to refine my plan of attack while my kids were at preschool . On my walk I saw another Mompreneur.  She was shoving packages in her mailbox before dashing off to pick up kids from said preschool.  We had a super quick "I get it" conversation about how thankful we are for the opportunity and how challenging "doing it all" really is.

Like most things in life, the grass is greener.  Like many other moms I feel like I am in the constant state of jumble.  My brain is jumbled.  I have trouble figuring out where to focus RIGHT NOW.  I never have enough time for work or time with my kids.  Some days I long for someone to tell me what to do all day at an office.  Other days I long for simplicity and the ability to spend unlimited time at the park pushing the swing.  Most days I appreciate the chaos, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Sometimes that thing you want, that freedom to choose, is actually also a really heavy responsibility.

I recently surveyed Mompreneur friends (on Facebook of course) and heard a lot of the same themes.  That elusive word BALANCE comes up readily.  I am not a fan of the word as I feel it's a fleeting target.  Today's balance is tomorrow's chaos.  Life with kids is frantic and wild and unpredictible.  Balance just doesn't fit the season.  Life as an entrepreneur is quite similiar. There is no 9 to 5.  There is no "end of the day".  There is no clock for clocking out.

Combine Mom and Enterpreneur together and get ready for a wild ride.   Allow balance to remove itself from your vocabulary.  The search for it will always leave you feeling off-kilter.  I've changed my ideal to controlled chaos.  It's much easier to acheive than balance.  It allows for situations like wearing my breast pump while talking to the accountant and cooking dinner and responding to customer service messages. I am learning to embrace it.  It means that I can't tell you exactly when I will be on Facebook Live because I don't want to dissapoint you when my baby is screaming rather than napping and he comes first.  It means that most days my list is far from "checked off" because a different priority took precedent. 

I realize I haven't solved the world's problems.  I realize I probably haven't made you mompreneurs feel better, but maybe a tad bit more normal?  This is the beginning of a series.  I'm not sure yet where it might go, but I hope to dig into some of the struggles that working moms of all kinds face.  Guilt.  Exhaustion. Unrealistic Expectations.  Limitations.  Never Enough Time.   

What topics should we cover?