Every time I schedule an appointment I’m asked for the best time to schedule. When I tell them I work from home so most any time works, I end up being carried away into a whole new conversation.
First people ask what I do – I typically respond at length since most people don’t really know what blogging is. Next I can always bank on the following question being “how did you get started?”
The truth is, I was the mother of two preschoolers (twins) and had just divorced from the man who now holds the record for biggest deadbeat dad in my county. With the lack of child support and two little guys who depended entirely on me, I really had no choice and I’m not sure I’d have had it any other way.
There is no option to find a job that pays well enough to support a family of three, work full time and pay for childcare. It just was not a possibility and welfare was not an option for me.
When the boys were born 6 weeks premature weighing in a a whopping 3 lbs. 14 oz. and 4 lbs. 7 oz., I had to utilize the Women, Infants and Children program to help cover the prescription formula they had to have for the first six months of life. It was difficult enough for me to present vouchers for formula but with formula being $150 a case and the twins using 2 cases a week, I had no choice.
Perhaps it was a mix of that sense of responsibility and my being selfish in not wanting another person or organization to raise my children. I’ve always felt I was the one person who had the most interest vested in the adults my kids would become, so I wanted to raise them.
Early on I worked as a bartender. With the boys going to bed at 8:00 PM, they were only aware I was even away from them for a couple of hours a day. My father took care of them while I worked on weekends. That money afforded us what we needed, but then again, I grew a bit selfish and wanted to give the boys more of what they wanted.
The driving force behind my success has always been my boys. Trey and Coty are my life and whether it’s Karma that’s been so good to me or just my being lucky, I don’t know. But I’ve found that when I place my children first and foremost, everything else seems to fall into place.
Today my boys are 14 and are very good kids. I couldn’t be more proud 
when they come home from school or sport awards programs with awards for citizenship and sportsmanship. I believe that’s when my truest level of success was able to be measured. All the rest is just small stuff!
It’s easy to see how I got started, but sometimes it’s just good to look back and reflect on where I’ve been so I can see clearly where I’m going.
Now I’d like to know what the driving force for some of you has been? Not just the desire to work from home, but deep down, what has actually made it happen and keeps to reaching for higher levels of success?
Tags: work from home, wahm, earn money online, professional blogging, weblog, blogging
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Gayla! I posted my story on both of my blogs. If you don’t mind I’ll include the links to them here (I’m not trying to spam you). WritingThoughts: http://www.writingthoughts.com/?p=62
OpinionMom: http://opinionmom.com/2007/06/25/a-difficult-decision-remembered/
Both posts deal with the same topic, although on OpinionMom it’s more about how I agonized over the decision.
The short answer is: I wanted the flexibility to spend more time with the kids (which I know have). That flexibility also came in really handy when my Dad was ill. I wouldn’t trade that flexibility for anything.
Gayla, I think my comment wound up in your spam filter.
Oh, there it is. Now, I feel stupid. Well, back to work for me. Thanks for sharing your story.
I just love those pictures of your boys Gayla!!
What an inspiring read.
Now I feel so selfish because most of my reasons for taking the homebased route are purely me-me-me’ish.
Yoou have been tagged
http://pjmommy.com/?p=181
I’m not a mom. I am in my 30′s, and have a professional/graduate degree, but I quit my job because I can’t handle working for anyone else or being beholden to a boss’s schedule or personality quirks. I want to be in complete control of when I wake up, how much and when I work, and how I accomplish my work. That’s why I’ve started working from home.
I began brainstorming my entrepreneurship after it became clear my husband and I were both going to have to work to stay in L.A. and raise our family. We had already sacrificed financial luxeries (ie. having two cars in the family, flying out for vacations and eating out.) With my husband walking 4 miles to work and me at home raising our daughter I found I needed to become even more productive with the little free time I had in the day. My vision for “scandinucci” was to simplify the chaotic pick-up-and-go lifestyle that we were always fighting as active parents. I wanted to help supply American parents with new options for traveling safely and sanely with their children.
Can’t say that before I became a mum but Clayton came along in 2004, he’s been the driving force too in reaching for higher heights of success. He is still the motivation cos he adds so much meaning to my life.