How to Turn Your Small Business into Teachable Moments (& Feel LESS Mom Guilt)

In those first few years of running my business full time while also stepping into full-time motherhood, the mom guilt hit hard.  The more I opened up to friends, the more I realized — it doesn’t matter if you work from home, locally, part time, travel, need to devote hours to caring for other family members or anything where your physical or mental self is away from your child, it leaves you feeling unbalanced — & we all get that.

One of the biggest mindset shifts for me was learning to see the overlap time as teachable moments AND a way to help my son understand, in an age-appropriate way, that while work can be challenging, it’s also what supports + benefits our family.

Here's a few examples to better illustrate.

• Whenever I had a work errand, that I had to bring my son on, & it took me 45-60 minutes from home, I’d plan some sort of experience for after — to show that work matters, but so does balance & work supports doing the fun things.
  
  
• When I had to make handmade art pieces for work, I’d set up a project on the other side of the table — something that could be done mostly independently — so we could create side by side, share inspiration & relax in the creative process together.
  
  
• In addition to the creative process itself, I’d dive in to explain how digital tools such as Canva, Photoshop & time-lapse photography can help expand, showcase & share your artwork.
  
  
• Once he was old enough, I started giving my son a small cash allowance for helping with counting, sorting or packing orders & event materials — which led to some AMAZING lessons in budgeting & saving!

Implementing the above took a lot of habit building, creative thinking & mental lesson planning.  And that’s not to say there aren’t still frantic moments or holiday hustle days when I forget EVERYTHING in the moment — leading to a stressful, unbalanced afternoon & takeout dinner followed by apologies & promises to do better at night. 

But that said, the final piece, I think, is to own that you’re human.  You’re learning.  Feel it when you make a mistake, explain it, set an intention & lead your sweet little human(s) by example.  That in itself has led to some awesome conversations in our home about everything from when schooldays are similarly overwhelming to planning healthy strategies to incorporating more downtime.

Between the teachable moments, the excitement of entrepreneurship taking hold, the curious questions & the beautiful conversations about how income support life — & owning that I’m learning from my own imbalances — that’s where the mom guilt didn’t disappear, but it decreased substantially.

After you give this a try, tell me how it went, what worked for you or your business Instagram handle below - I can’t wait to read, learn & follow along on your journeys!



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