Pictures: Free time for your feet to take you to the nearest water! Time to be with your babies! One of my husband's pieces from one of his two jobs as an artist making copper pieces and jewelry.
The best and worst things about being self employed are ironically one and the same. You are able to schedule your own time and your own hours to a great extent. It's probably pretty obvious why this rates the 'best' title. My husband is the primary breadwinner in this family and he has been self employed since before our little girl was born. Thanks to that fact he attended every pregnancy doctor visit and every child check-up with our daughter since. Having him around for all of these seemingly small, but really important things has been great for all of us. Being able to work hard from the early morning until mid-afternoon and then deciding to go for a boat ride and swim as a family rocks too, I have to admit! The downside to being self-employed is that you have to set your own hours. This usually is a bummer as well, because your boss can be kind of a jerk. You can't sit still and enjoy a breath when you know you could be doing a million things to get ahead, or more likely catch up at work. You constantly have to choose between those parts of your whole life that need attention, without the aid of physical distance from work to help you. Even though I am very new to the business world and it cannot yet be the main focus of my day, I still feel this pull strongly. I seem to be always choosing on an hourly basis if not more often who gets my full attention. Does my daughter play beside me as I list something for sale or do we go for a walk? Do I really push to get some writing done, or do I spend time with my exhausted husband? It's tough. When it comes down to it though, you have decide each time what's best for your whole family. Sometimes that answer is 'I need to be Mom right now.' Sometimes it's 'I need to put some effort into something for me to get a little space.' It can be hard to juggle it all. It can also be worth it for sure! I just have to remember how my actions will affect me right now, in the short term, and in the long term. Of course often I just go by what I'm feeling in the moment. That's really okay too. It's good to follow your feelings, they're usually pretty telling.
