As some of you may know, I have a young son. Michael is 6, and honestly, he’s the love of my life.

Two years ago, I lost my part-time job. It was a good job for a mom with a young child to have–not too much responsibly, benefits, fairly good pay, 18 hours a week. But it was government-funded, and the government un-funded it, and I found myself unemployed.

I wasn’t sure what to do. My first priority was to find a job I could do without having to put Michael in daycare. Expanding my publicity work from part-time to full-time seemed like the most viable option, so I took a small business course, and, two years later, here we are.

I’ll be the first person to tell you how much I love being self-employed. I love being able to choose who I want to work with, what hours I work, when and where. I love that when Michael has a field trip to the pumpkin patch, I can take the day off and go with him. I turned down work this summer so that I could hang out with him on summer vacation.

This worked really well for the first part of the summer, but over the last couple of weeks, it’s been harder to balance life and work. My clients are gearing up for their fall seasons, and I need to get stuff done. So, it’s been tough these last few weeks, trying to balance getting stuff done with hanging out with and enjoying the last few weeks of summer with my son.

Truth is, part of being a good parent is being able to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. So, I know it’s important to keep the money rolling in. But I still feel guilty saying “sure, bub, I’ll come and help you with that in two secs, after I send this email.”

What do you think? How do you parents out there manage your work and your kids? I’d love to hear.

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