Summer can be a hard time for mompreneurs. Your kids are home every.single.day! It’s hard to run your business and still provide the fun summer time for your kids. But there is a way to have a productive and relaxing summer. Here are the 3 things to avoid.
3 Things to Avoid for a Relaxing Summer
1) Planning Everything
With school, homework, activities, sports, classes, it’s almost a necessity to have a plan for every second of the day. But in the summer, not so much. Summer is all about being easy, spontaneous, and fun-loving. It’s nice not to have to get up at a certain time, carpool, do homework, eat meals, go to bed, etc. If you plan everything – it will feel just like the school year. It will feel over-scheduled, rigid, and nothing new.
I love to schedule and plan. But in the summer – I definitely don’t plan everything.
I do recommend that you make some decisions about your work – and plan for your work time. You may have to do a little planning for your kids while you’re working (camps, classes, daycare). And you’ll need to plan your vacations and holidays.
But the rest – let it happen.
- Rainy day? Go to the movies.
- Sunny Day? Go to the pool.
- Need a change of pace? Go to the library.
- Tired? Stay home and build a fort in the living room.
You can research all the possible activities in advance – and just have a list ready. Or put them all on pieces of paper – and when you need to – have the kids draw out the paper for the activity for that day. have fun with it!
And remember, it’s not all bad to have some time when you’re kids are bored. Studies have found that it’s good for the brain and can even spark creativity.
Kids don’t remember the perfect plans you created. They remember the fun times. So make summer light and easy. Go with the flow.
2) Setting Pinterest-Perfect Expectation
With all the access to the creative and amazing ideas for kids activities, meals, outings, etc. it can be easy to set unrealistic expectations for the summer. I’ve talked with a lot of mompreneurs who felt like their summers were “less than” because the craft didn’t go as planned, they didn’t accomplish all they wanted to, they didn’t have gourmet meals every day or they didn’t have the “perfect” vacation.
Instead, what if you set the expectation of just being satisfied. What if you allowed things to happen. Laugh when things go wrong. Go with the flow – pivot when needed. Setting realistic expectations for the summer will allow you to relax, focus on the important things and have fun instead of worrying.
Kids don’t remember picture-;perfect vacations – but they do remember an uptight, stressed out mom. So relax – and let the fun flow.
3) Not Arranging for Help
It’s hard to be a mom and run a business. and it’s even harder in the summer where you have less time and you want to spend more time with your family. So this is the time where you need to think about outsourcing. Remember I know you can do graphics. I know you can create a Facebook post graphic, and I know you can create pins. But is that the really the best use of your time? To have a happy summer you really need to be brutal about what only you can do and other things to outsource. You want to make sure that you’re doing the activities that are going to bring in the revenue for your business – especially if you’re reducing your working hours. Then let other people do those other things.
Or instead of outsourcing your work, perhaps paying to have someone spend some time with your kids will allow you to accomplish more. One thing that worked really well for me in the summers was having a “mother‘s helper” who was a girl that was in middle school. She wasn’t maybe quite old enough to babysit on her own. She would come over and play with my kids. What was nice was that she could really keep them entertained and occupied while I worked. My kids loved it! She came over and played board games (some of the games that I didn’t want to play) or she would take them outside and they would run to the sprinkler, or they would build forts in the backyard. So it was really creative and really free play that they had with her but I was still there working so if there was any problems that came up, I was there. The one drawback is that they do know you’re there and they will come and ask you questions. But overall at least you get this block of time where you know your kids are having a good time while you get to focus on work..
So you really need to think about the ways you can outsource your work or find some help. All these things may not cost very much but they would free up your time so you can really focus on what only you can do
Those are my top three things to avoid so that you can have a relaxing summer as a mom entrepreneur. I hope you’ll try these out. Let me know what you do for a productive and relaxing summer.
Want to know more?
I want you all to be able to have that carefree summer that you’ve always dreamed of!
I’m having a Summer Planning Class for Mompreneurs. If you’re unsure how to plan for your business and family for the summer, we’ll cover the following:
- why quarterly plans don’t work for mompreneurs
- calculate the number you MUST know to be successful this summer
- my signature planning process for the summer for mompreneurs
- set yourself up for success
We’ll cover strategies so that you can do the work that you love but still have that time for your family.
So I’d love you to join me! it’s going to be on Tuesday, June 4th. Click the button to sign up.
Like the post? PIN IT!
