A Day in the Life of a Mompreneur

Monday August 6, 2007

5:55 AM - I wake up to a tiny hand pulling on my arm.  "Mommy?"  Gracie (age 2.4) climbs up on my bed and cuddles with me.  She tells me about her bad dream ("cat was mean and scary").  I hope she wants to cuddle for a while longer.  No luck.  "Mommy up!  Wake up time!  Hungry!"  Ugh.  It’s still dark outside. 

6:03 After giving Gracie a cereal bar and plopping her down in front of the TV for a Dora show, I check email and delete spam.  Answer an email from my mom about my sister’s new engagement, and travel plans for September.  Read the front page headlines on cnn.com to make sure the world did not explode.  Read more

Is it weird for me to work at home while I send Gracie to preschool?

And even more important … why do I think this? Why do I feel guilt? I would not think it was weird for me to send Gracie to preschool (which has been wonderful for her, by the way, she even has friends now!), if I went to a J.O.B. in an office. Or even if I got dressed up and went to an office for my own business. But somehow, sitting here at my living room desk, it enters my mind that it is weird that I have other people watch over her when I am "just" working from home. As if working from home is not "working." As if I would be able to run a company with Gracie running around, yanking on my capri’s, coloring on stacks of Post-it Notes, wining "Mommy, up! Please!" (does "please" count if it is screamed?) I resolve to not judge myself based upon the fact that I am working in bare feet, in my living room, with my cat next to me. I am still running a company, making money, giving advice … just as "real work" as performed any office (and for that matter, more real than any J.O.B. I ever had before I hung my shingle). And I resolve to not feel weird about being only mommy dropping off her kid that’s not dressed in "work clothes."