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The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - How to Cope with Stay at Home Burnout
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Guest Article - The Ho-Hum Summer Days
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Blech! I still have a cough, and now Ariel's gotten it too. I guess so far she's lucky, though... she's sleeping better than I was during the early part of this virus. The doctor says this is just one of those coughs that tends to linger, so I guess I'll just have to cope and hope that Ariel keeps sleeping so well.
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Being an at home parent may be the best job you’ll ever get, but it’s HARD. You’re on call 24/7, and when you go on vacation, you still have the same responsibilities. And if you have a home business or work at home job, life can be even more challenging.
The first step to coping with burnout is preventing it in the first place. Don’t overfill your schedule with activities for the kids or yourself. Take a little time for yourself every day. You don’t need to be alone, but you do need to relax a little. Whether this may be during the kids’ naps or when they’re in school, even taking just a few minutes for you can really help. Then you can take advantage of the time to get things done with a clear head.
Make sure your expectations and those of your family are realistic. If you’re running a home business or have a work at home job, you can’t be expected to keep as perfect a house as a mother who does not. Pick a day to do the laundry, the vacuuming and other housework that doesn’t need to be done on a daily basis and leave it until then… unless the urgent need arises, of course.
When you get angry, don’t consider yourself an imperfect or bad parent. We all get angry sometimes. What is more important is how you react to the anger.
Make sure you get enough sleep. The more tired you are, the more stress you are going to feel, and the harder it will be to cope with it. If necessary, take a nap at the same time as the kids do, so they’re not getting into trouble for lack of supervision.
Plan fun activities once in a while to relieve stress. Depending on your needs and the needs of your family, this can be alone or with the entire family. Go to the beach, a park, zoo, mall, wherever it is you can relax and just have fun.
Consider planning or even cooking meals and snacks in advance. It’s easy to give your children healthy snacks if you have sliced vegetables and/or fruits ready to go in the fridge. A few minutes’ work early in the week can save you time. Meals may also be prepared in advance and frozen for those nights when you’re simply too tired to cook. Plan your meals for leftovers that will freeze well, and say goodbye to expensive frozen dinners from the grocery store.
If writing out your schedule helps you, then keep a written schedule. If it makes you feel overwhelmed, then don’t. Just because your best friend says it keeps her on schedule to have a calendar with everything she needs to do on it doesn’t mean the same will work for you.
Finally, don’t let other parents make you feel you owe them favors just because you’re at home and “have time.” You’re doing a full time job taking care of your family, not just loafing. Your schedule may be just as full as theirs, if not more so.
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just business. From money saving tips to parenting and marriage tips, to work at home jobs and businesses, you can get information and support here. You can visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com.
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From mid June to about mid September, life on the Internet does a slow meltdown. The lucky ones escape the screen and get away on holiday; that is, those who have made reasonable profits for their Online endeavors. For the rest of us, it means double the effort for the same, or less, results.
But during these weeks there are some good benefits if you are in for the long haul; and I hope this includes you. Almost without exception offers for advertising space goes “on sale” just to get your business. The “buy-one-get-one-free” pleas are numerous.
And this is an advantageous time for you to place ads in an Ezine with over 100,000 subscribers. The rest of the year these high-end publications are generally beyond our budget. Generally they have “paid” subscribers. And because they “pay” for their subscriptions, they are more apt to read each issue even on vacation. Now that’s an audience “on point”, so to speak.
Another advantage to these weeks is the purchase of some opt-in subscribers to your list. Over the summer months you can work more closely with your “new signups”, and prepare them to make money not just for themselves but for you as well.
Of course it should go without saying that all those eBooks you downloaded and meant to get back to and read --- now is the time. Print them and read every word. This can be your “schooling” months, and that doesn’t cost one penny more to pick up something that you didn’t know before. Perhaps you’ll learn a shortcut or two that makes your Internet Marketing easier.
Further, you might contemplate finally owning your own… what? Product? Ezine? Website? Article? If you have put this off for a time when you should give total concentration, now is that time. It doesn’t mean you have to write an eBook --- truthfully, I have never written one. But I DO have complete resale rights to several and get 100% of the profits, and you should be doing the same.
Look for the eBooks with resell rights and read them. If you find a jaw-dropper, add it to your collection of eBooks with 100% profits going to you. Use the Summer blahs to build your Library, and make an effort to end those “work-for-me” programs.
I like to quote Marlon Sanders when he says… “Sometimes the most expensive thing you ever do is nothing. It’s called opportunity cost. The price of ignorance is missing out on opportunities”.
Next look at reassessing your programs: which ones are paying, which ones are not? Three good, solid programs are about the limit for concentrated focus that offers value for your investment dollar.
Revising your website: have you over-done the bells and whistles? Would a new “opener” refresh your front page? More color? Less color? Hey, this is a great time to study other websites and incorporate what you find, and like, into your own.
Before you know it, Fall will arrive with gusto, and so will the new Internet entrepreneurs; eager and open to your ideas.
Stay inspired.
C: 2004, by Esther Smith
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Esther Smith is editor of “Partners-For-Profit” Newsletter and copywriter for The Permanent Venture. Each publication of PFP Newsletter addresses an important aspect of your struggles to perfect your Internet business. As a “Partner”, you will learn many ways to increase your profit streams. A Library of 300 digital ebooks with 100% resale rights is a “must have”.
http://thepermanentventure.com/totalresale.htm
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