Working at home, as mom entrepreneurs especially, can become hectic rather quickly. In most cases, there are no other adults to interact with. This may seem like no big deal at first. Once the “honeymoon” period is over, however, the cabin fever sets in.
Panic develops and turns into resentment in some cases, which is too often directed towards the children. This resentment can spill over into the marriage relationship as well (for married mothers). More often than not, many mothers will become depressed or at least feel down and out.
How do mom entrepreneurs fight the blues?
This depression, anxiety and overall stress needs to be fought against. Here are a few ways that mom entrepreneurs can put an end to their blues:
- Find other moms to relate to. Having adult conversation is something that many mothers who make this career choice miss early on and do not understand why they wind up frustrated and cabin-crazy.
- Try to find a sitter to have a break from time to time and meet with adult friends. This means you can dress up and feel pretty regularly, something that gets missed.
- Have play dates with other mothers and their similarly-aged children, if possible. This alleviates two needs: your needs as a mother who would like to know she is not alone in her plight, and your kids’ needs who would like to have a friend to relate to.
- Make a habit of enjoying your kids, whether it’s family movie night or a day trip to the zoo. This gets them out of the mode of “nuisance” and back into the mode of little people you enjoy.
- Make sure to get regular exercise to fight stress. It’s easy to get into a rut without any exercise, but fighting stress is much easier when you’re fit rather than not.
- Take a vacation or day drip once a quarter at least. The key here is to unwind regularly and relieve stress, so making sure that you do so is paramount.
The key is to feel like a woman and enjoy the freedom you have as an adult.
Feeling trapped indoors is easy for mom entrepreneurs. Besides feeling trapped by the enclosed and same walls, many who are new to entrepreneurship feel trapped by the children too often. Face it – being a mother is no cakewalk, it’s tough.
Making time to dress up, because of a date or because it is simply the thing to do to make you feel like a grown-up again, will help you to feel less trapped and more free.
It’s also important to point out that having a bit of variety drives the blues away. Having the same walls looking back at you with the same messes to clean up all day will not have the best effect on your mood or sanity. Make time to mix things up a bit.
How? By taking a day trip to a local place of interest that allows field trips. Take you kids to see how milk is produced in a local dairy, or show them around a historical landmark in your vicinity. Sitting at home with only the grocery store and bank to draw you out is a recipe for disaster.
What mom entrepreneurs have said they missed most about their day job is the change of scenery, the socializing and the intellectual stimulation they would receive by virtue of being in a complex work environment.
Motherhood is itself a complex work situation – but with mom entrepreneurs, this era of rearing kids will make it difficult to adjust unless you can take some action to find others mothers to speak to about anything on your mind.
Feeling like a “sophisticate” again will help all mom entrepreneurs combat feelings of being trapped or otherwise denied some intellectual satisfaction.
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