A couple of months ago, I was with a client at a site visit for her wedding. We went through timing, vendors, decor etc. and at the end, standing in the parking lot separating ways, she says ‘ Look at you, doing it all, being a mom and planning weddings’ I didn’t even think twice about it. At this meeting, I had both my kids with me, 3 and 10 months.
If you are pacing yourself because you have little children around, I don’t blame you. If you hustle all day and feel guilt, I don’t blame you.
Mornings in my house start with getting my kids up, bums changed, breakfast for them, coffee for me. I slide into my living room to let my littlest play and drink from his bottle and I stick an iPad in front of my 3-year-old with a mickey mouse waffle. Every 10 minutes I am yelling from the living room into the kitchen “CHAR! are you eating?!” In the meantime, I pick up my phone and start checking emails ,just checking so that i can make a mental note of who needs responses and what I might reply back.
about 2 hours after we’ve awakened, its first nap time for my littlest. As soon as he goes down I tell my 3 year old ” Mom needs to work, what do you want to watch? Paw Patrol or Blaze and the Monster Machines?” See, we’ve dvr’d a slew of them and she takes a bucket of toys and watches her shows.
I sit down at the kitchen table and focus for as long as I can until either Arthur wakes up, or Charlotte decides she needs a snack.
This time runs usually runs about 2 hours. I am doing everything I can in these two hours- putting together a timeline, sending out bid requests to vendors, contacting new companies for sponsorships, setting up an email newsletter, or brainstorming a new pitch for a new event.
And as soon as my time runs out my daughter asks me “mom, you done working, you can play with me now?” Ugh. talk about guilt, talk about feeling disappointed in yourself. Than I take little bits of time here and there to keep checking emails, make phone calls and go to meetings, run errands. As soon as the kids are asleep- I take another 2 hours to do my thing. I am probably working an 8 hour day like most people, but the difference with me is that I work everyday as a mom too.
I’m heading into the 7th year as an event planner, I’ve done weddings, launch parties, grand openings, anniversaries, and birthdays. I took 16 months off in this time when my first child was born because as a new mom, I felt like I couldn’t afford to be doing anything else but paying attention to a tiny human all day long, total new mom mentality right?
Now I have a 3-year-old and an almost 1-year-old, and poor little guy- his 3 year old sister is basically showing him the ropes of how to stay busy while mom is working.
But, I wouldn’t change anything. This year has been my most successful year, because after my 16 month hiatus, I worked hard every damn day after that. I worked on content, branding, networking, business education. and this year is successful because every event I have had has been a referral, every single one of them I didn’t have to cold call, pitch or anything. my prior hustle gave me a good reputation in the industry. And the daily pressure I have is the pressure I put on myself to build on this momentum.
So, all you Moms doing your thing, making a name for yourself, building a dream- don’t feel guilty. you are doing so much for so many and it will pay off. stay focused everyday and balance your time. Schedule meetings that work for you, and if the kids come, so be it. I take my kids all the time and for them- it’s the norm. And I am setting an example that I can be professional and still stick a mam binky in my baby’s mouth.
If you are feeling judged cause you are juggling, tell that inner you to simmer down. No one is judging you. and if they are- it’s probably cause they don’t have kids- that’s likely a blanket statement, but if someone is judging you- they aren’t worth your brain space, Sister- trust me.
So keep momming hard, and hustle everyday towards your goals. be the ultimate mom-preneur! And if you ever need to chat with someone who knows, really knows- please shoot me an email! muylymillerco@gmail.com
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