How can you be a mompreneur? Don’t you feel like you are prioritizing your business over your children … or the other way around … that because you have children you will never be able to give your business the attention it needs. Like, you know, a man could?

Ugh.

I would like to tell you that’s what people ask me. But if I am honest, this is a question I used to ask myself all the time. And this same questioning is what kept me small. Because as long as I was playing small .. then I could manage being both the mom I wanted to be with my boys, and I had a cool little side hustle that gave me something to do and some extra cash.

But I’ve been stepping out of my business comfort zone by growing my client base. I also gave myself permission to dream big and go big. And now, with a full deck on my business plate, my son broke his ankle and needs me for e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. 

This is a mompreneur’s nightmare.

But it doesn’t have to be. And let me explain why by using my house as an example.

I life on the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico. The front door of my house faces east,  and I see the mountains covered in the Carson National Forest. Green. Lush. It is inhabited by bears, mountain lions, and hundreds of other species whose existence is interrupted here and there by a passing human on a mountain bike or like me, trekking with a dog.

But the back door of my house, faces west into a completely different terrain. From the back patio I see what is called the mesa, a high desert plain. Way in the distance … as in at least 50 miles or so… I see the silhouettes of the desert mountains which when you get close, seem to be painted in hues of red, pink and purple. The mesa is the wild west. Expansive, inhospitable though several different communities who live off grid call it home. 

Between the front door and the back patio door is my living space, and it’s about 38 of “my feet” wide (I am a size 9 if you are curious), or you can measure it as 29 saltillo tiles (pictured above). 

And that is where I live.

I live between the front door view of green lush mountains, and the back patio view of an arid plane covered in sagebrush. And the cool part is that I can choose whichever view I want based on my mood. Green and lush, pink and arid. Yogi Bear or Breaking Bad. 

Because I have both, I GET TO CHOOSE if I sit to have my tea in the front porch or the back one.

But if lightning strikes the forest and it begins to burn, I’m not going to choose to go hang out on the pack porch looking at the wild west Mesa. I’m going to take care of the forest. 

So if there is an emergency and my kid needs me, you bet I am going to tell my clients “be right back” and then make it up to them in extra service and deliverables.

But here’s the deal we moms often forget. If there is an emergency with my business, I can also plop my kids in front of the TV and order pizza and guilt free tell them “be right back.”

We often feel like we have to choose between seemingly opposing forces: client or child; money or peace. But we don’t.

You can have both, and create a life where you get to choose who to hang out with depending on the season and the mood. 

One does not negate the other. Sitting in the front porch looking at the forest does not mean I don’t love the feeling the mesa brings me.

And it’s the same with moms and our businesses.

Except that we are not conditioned to think that way … more on that on the next instalment of this series.

But I will leave you with this: 38 size 9 feet is enough space to be home.