The decision to work at home is one I’ve never regretted. It’s challenging, exhausting, takes up pretty much all of my spare time plus any other time I can give it, but it’s still a great experience.

I have to admit, though, the ups and downs can be pretty rough. Especially the financial ups and downs. But it’s all part of the game.

Dealing with the Financial Ups and Downs

I must say, the financial ups of working at home, and particularly of running a home business have been pretty amazing for me. I don’t just mean not paying for daycare, which would be a pretty big expense with 3 kids.

I mean the months where I get really good commission checks. Bringing in a really healthy check (by my standards) feels great.

On the other hand, those months where it seems like I can’t earn a decent check no matter what I do really suck.

That’s something you’ll face in most home businesses and many work at home jobs. It’s a reality.

Demand for your business goes up. Demand goes down. Competition comes. Competition goes.

For work at home jobs, sometimes there’s tons of work to be had. Other times things are just quiet. That was true even when I was a medical transcriptionist, and that’s a pretty high demand field.

If you aren’t ready for the financial ups and downs (especially the downs), working at home in any capacity is going to be pretty hard on you and your family.

Dealing with the ups is pretty easy. Just don’t overspend in the good times. You need money ready for those times when things aren’t so good.

Dealing with the downs is harder, especially if you haven’t prepared well for them. It’s easier if you have enough money to get by for a few months despite a low income.

But even with that, it’s going to be rough emotionally.

Dealing with the Emotional Ups and Downs

How you feel about working at home in part echoes how your income goes, but not entirely. You can get frustrated even when your income is great, and you can feel great about the work you’re doing even when it’s not yet bringing in any real money.

This is where you need family support. When things just aren’t running smoothly, you don’t want to hear “I told you so” from anyone. You want and need support.

Family’s the best place to get it, but you can also get great support from online friends. Just don’t let it lead into so much goofing off online that you don’t get any work done.

You can share your problems in your favorite forums. You can tweet about them, share with your Facebook friends, whatever and wherever you like to do to vent your frustrations.

Just don’t forget to share your triumphs too.

Enjoy the Ride

Working at home can be a roller coaster in so many ways, but you can’t let it get to you too much. Enjoy the good, deal with the bad and don’t give up. Believe in your ability to make it work, and eventually you will.

Like many people, my big reason for starting to work at home in the first place was to be there for my kids. With three of them now, that reason only gets more important.

But I have to admit, dealing with a baby when I want to get work done is not easy. It’s been really tough lately to come up with enough hours to get even the minimum amount of work done I’d like to. Especially as she gets older, more mobile and more demanding.

Time was when I could sit her on my lap and still get a little bit done. That’s not quite so simple now. She’s bigger and much more interested in my keyboard and anything she can reach on my desk. Especially if it can go in her mouth.

Yeah. I pretty much need her naptimes to get anything done. And it’s still not easy many days then, as she’s not exactly a champion of sleeping through the night. Thank goodness I don’t have to drive to work that tired.

This is one of the times that it takes incredible dedication to keep going. Believe me, it would be much easier to just take off, but that’s not what I’m going to do, and if you’re in a similar situation, not what I’d recommend either.

When daytime naptimes don’t work for me, working at night after all the kids are in bed can. Other work at home parents prefer early, early mornings, a thought which gives me the chills. Really, really not for me!

But you do what works for you.

Work early in the morning. Late at night. During baby’s nap. When there’s another adult available to watch the kids.

You can even hire a “Mother’s (or Father’s) Helper” to just play with the baby as you work. I did this when I was a medical transcriptionist, and it was pretty helpful. You don’t even need your helper able to feed the baby or change diapers. Just play with the baby and let you know when something more is needed. Older siblings (where available) can also help.

I like to remind myself that this won’t last forever. That means enjoying this time with a baby and not letting it get me down too much just for being tired. And if the price for not losing a post to a baby pounding a keyboard is a little less sleep, so be it.

We’ve been having a couple of really hot days around here lately. It broke 100 degrees F here yesterday. My daughter was quick to ask after school if she could stay inside rather than be sent out to play. That got me thinking about how I’m going to be coping with the kids this summer.

It helps to plan in advance.

Much as this kind of heat is miserable to deal with, it was a great reminder that I need to get ready to deal with summer. Bored kids, high heat, and probable water regulations to cope with the drought in our area. There are two areas to consider. What are you doing, and what are the kids doing?

What Are You Doing?

When will you work when the kids are off school? Your current schedule may or may not be right for the summer.

Many work at home parents end up needing to cut back when summer hits because they need the family time more. It’s a part of why you’re at home, after all.

However, it’s always good to remember that you are not and should not be your children’s sole source of entertainment. If you need more time to work, encourage them to play on their own.

If you need more work time than comes easily, consider hiring a mother’s helper or trading times with a fellow at home parent. I’ve had a great deal of luck with sending my kids to play with friends, and taking their friends in to play at our house in return.

Make sure you also plan for family outings. They don’t have to be anything fancy, but heading out to a beach, lake or park gives you a nice break from working and is likely to be fun for all concerned.

What Are the Kids Doing?

Summer is a great time for enrolling the kids in classes, but don’t overdo it. Mine will absolutely have swimming lessons, for example, just for their safety at the various pools they sometimes have access to.

I’m no fan of overscheduling kids, no matter the time of year, so I am certainly not recommending you fill their days too full. Kids of all ages need time to be kids and to do their own thing.

Take them to the library too. If there’s assigned reading from school, make sure that gets done, but otherwise let your kids go by their own interests. I truly believe that it doesn’t matter so much what a child reads, so long as he or she reads. Some exceptions for inappropriate material, of course.

If your children are old enough, encourage them to help you with your business or try endeavors of their own. It can be as simple as the traditional lemonade stand or a more challenging project you work on together. Entrepreneurship is a great skill to encourage!

Of course, you have to be prepared for the arguments, especially if you have more than one child. They’ll argue because they’re bored. Because they don’t want to share. Because one doesn’t want to play with another. Because they’re siblings. Because they don’t need any reason at all to argue sometimes.

I like to keep a balance between letting my kids hash it out themselves and helping them get along better. Sometimes parents need to put a stop to things for their own sanity or the ability to get some work done without a pounding headache.

Make sure you get the kids involved with chores around the house. They’re home more, they can help more. If you have a regular schedule, work their assistance into it, even when having the kids help means it takes longer to get things done. Add in the occasional fun chore such as baking or making popsicles or ice cream.

If you’re used to your kids being at school during the day, yes it is much harder to get work done during the summer. The more you plan ahead, however, the better off you will probably be.

One thing I see a lot of work at home sites do is offer a “top 10″ list of work at home jobs. I’ve never written one and never intend to.

Why?

1. Most lists call “work at home opportunities” “work at home jobs.”

Too many of these lists merely add to the confusion many job seekers have about the confusion between work at home jobs and home businesses.

There’s nothing wrong with suggesting a home business, but keep things clear. A home business is a great option for many people, but others prefer to work for someone else.

For example, many so-called data entry opportunities are simply pay per click affiliate marketing. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s hard to learn, not to mention expensive. Some people do earn quite a bit at it, but you’re better off going through a source that doesn’t pretend you’re getting a job. It’s a business and you’re best off treating it that way and understanding the financial risks involved.

2. Most are nothing more than poorly screened affiliate links.

Worse, many haven’t properly reviewed. Many people make their lists based on what they hope to earn, not on what is really a good opportunity. There’s nothing wrong with earning money from a legitimately recommended product, but you should really know what you’re suggesting.

Many recommend survey sites, and go on about the money one can earn. Trouble is, it’s very hard to earn from surveys, and it’s quite time consuming.

Worse are the ones that recommend gifting programs and other flat out scams. When you’re trying to make a living of any sort at all from home, the last thing you need is to be scammed or get involved in illegal activities.

Add in places that advertise work at home jobs, charging for access then providing poor quality, and there’s a serious problem with most of these. A very, very few places that charge for resources to find work at home jobs are legitimate. Most have old leads that won’t do you any good at all. I’ve heard good about sites such as Home Job Stop (yes, an affiliate link, but carefully screened) but not many others.

3. Your best option is not mine.

There are so many possibilities I could suggest. I started out in medical transcription, for example, but that is decidedly not the career for every person who would like to work from home.

Now I run my own websites, doing information and affiliate marketing. Once again, decidedly not for everyone. It’s fun for me, and many others will enjoy it, but that doesn’t make it worth declaring a top 10 work at home opportunity.

Besides, there are too many variables in such businesses. I can tell you all about what I do, but your version of it would still be quite different.

4. It’s more important to know what you want to do.

If you want to work at home, the first thing you need to consider is what you want to do. What are your skills and interests? This can help you to narrow down the possibilities before you start job hunting.

5. I don’t like to encourage people to look for the easy solution.

Why? Because too often when people start looking for the quick and easy solution, they fall for scams. That’s why people still fall for envelope stuffing scams, email processing, gifting, assembly scams and so forth. It’s so easy to find scams when you want to take the easy way to work at home riches.

I’d rather people know that there aren’t shortcuts. If it appears to be too good to be true, it probably is. If you don’t understand where the money is coming from, forget it. If the pay is oddly high, beware. Just as when you work outside the home, you have to earn your money through hard work. It comes easier for some than for others.

Taking the time to search for the right opportunity for you is worth the effort.

Life has been interesting during this pregnancy for me. It’s rather draining for one thing. Adding in some rather severe hip pain due to the way things are loosening up in preparation for childbirth doesn’t help. Neither does the sweet clinginess of my 3 year old son.

Not that I really like to complain about that last. Despite having an older sister as well, my son seems quite well aware that a baby means big changes in his life. His recent need for my constant presence has emphasized that quite nicely.

This period has been one of the most challenging for me to get work done. Pregnancy is tiring, and it is so important to get enough rest. I joke with my husband that there’s only one plus to all the hip pain – it ensures that I don’t go overboard nesting. I HAVE to take breaks regularly or I will hardly be able to move.

And no, Tylenol doesn’t help. I wish it did.

There’s a lot that I hope to get done before I have this baby. I’d like to have a backlog of blog posts ready to go, for example. I may not be able to describe in advance how things went in the hospital, but I can certainly blog about more of the regular work at home and stay at home parenting issues I’m already familiar with.

Add in the usual blog posts I do just to keep things running around here.

Add in my preference for article marketing. This is the one I’ve been letting slide, as it’s least visible directly on my site.

I do have some plans. First of all, if anyone reading this wants to submit a guest post for this blog, the contact form link is on the left hand menu. I won’t be using anything until probably January or February, but anyone who wants to start talking with me now, feel free.

I also need to go through my private label article stash. Some may work adequately as blog posts with only minor rewriting. Others won’t be something I’d want to post but may suffice as a sort of research for a better article that I can write on my own, taking less time than doing the research would otherwise. I always check claims in private label articles, as the lowest quality ones I ever tried had a bunch of flat out falsehoods. Other companies make ones that are good enough to use flat out, but I prefer to add my own voice in anyhow.

Coping with my son’s needs can be far more challenging. I can’t keep count of how many times a day he asks for a snuggle… which inevitably turns into a game of Tickle Spiders. Well, almost inevitably. Once in a while he really is just cuddly.

But then there’s the backtrack on potty training. This has been a battle for a few months now. It started in large part because we had so many changes for him to deal with at once, the pregnancy, the start of my husband’s job, my daughter going back to school.

Yeah, this has been going on for a few months. Getting him trained for #1 wasn’t so bad, but #2…

Well I think if I gave you any details it would be TMI. Suffice it to say it’s been rough and there’s been a lot of extra laundry going on. Thank goodness he’s finally calming down about the whole deal and being willing to at least try.

It’s been a balancing act, indulging his need for reassurance and my need to work. Not to mention helping him to understand that baby will take some of Mommy’s time and at times he will have to deal with it. He likes talking about the ways he can help out, though, and the reassurance that Mommy can snuggle him and the baby at the same time if he’s careful.

Looking back I realize how much easier I had it during past pregnancies. I worked at home during both, but things were simpler. No other kids during my first, of course. I wasn’t pushing my business so hard during my second, and my daughter has always been a more independent child than my son. Good thing too, considering how much extra care he needed after being born!

Now I have a daughter in first grade, a son in speech therapy 3 days a week, and when I can manage it a fairly demanding work schedule. Thank goodness that last bit is up to me and I can drop things as I choose!