Help for the Struggling WAHM

Homeschool Review Crew

As a mom of many I was intrigued when offered a course designed by a mom of eight.  This wasn’t just any ordinary course but an online course to help teach you how about Balancing Diapers and Deadlines.  A course in essence to be a help for the struggling WAHM.  Lisa Tanner Writing is sharing wisdom on how to not only run a successful business from home but also on how to incorporate your children and family into that business while having a home that isn’t falling apart and full of chaos.

About the Program

In being a help for the struggling WAHM, Lisa Tanner shares her own story with us.  Then giving us a balanced approach to managing and being both a keeper of the home but also a business.  Drawing lines between how much time I spend on business versus family proves my greatest struggle.  For me it’s not my home that suffers but rather my business.  You see, I do work from home but on a small scale.  It’s a small scale because I’ve chosen not to give it as much of my time as I should due to not wanting to neglect my home and family.  

Included in the course one finds 30 lessons divided into eight different units.  These units contain the following:

1. Welcome to Balancing Diapers and Deadlines
2. Building Your Foundation with the Basics
3. Minimize Your Decisions
4. Minimize Your Decisions: The Annual Meal Plan
5. Sustainable Growth
6. Growing A Business with Your Kids Around
7. Boost Your Productivity
8. Closing Thoughts

The number of lessons per unit varies.  For instance, unit one only has the one lesson to read and review while unit six has seven different lessons within it.  Some units will thus require more time to complete than others.  Each lesson may contain worksheets and action steps to help you reach the goals of the lesson.  Baby steps to provide help for the struggling WAHM in manageable bite sized pieces.  Oh and did I mention there is no timeline you must maintain to get all the lessons done?

Our Thoughts

This course really did not have anything for my family or children to do or help with.  Mainly it’s a personal development activity for me.  I know there are areas I struggle with from experience.  For instance, I know that boundaries are hard for me.  Not in the normal sense of people putting too much into their businesses but rather not putting enough time and effort in because I then feel guilty of neglecting my family.  I don’t ever want my role of wife and mother to be overshadowed by a business.  That fear has driven me to not put enough into my business.  I’m hoping to find more balance once finishing this course. 

Help for the struggling WAHM could not have come at a better time for me!  I’m due any day now with kiddo number eleven for our house and the whole diapers and deadlines catch phrase really resonates with me.  How do moms do it all?  I often have people ask me how I do it all and while I can tell them how I do the house and meals and homeschool, sharing how I run a business becomes hard.  Because I don’t do a very good job of it!  At least not yet.  

One such action step to help you build your business has to do with productivity.  One bit of productivity is typing.  How fast do you type?  In this lesson you take a typing test.  I can type just over 80 words per minute which is great.  The average typist can do 40 words per minute.  I did take a typing course way back in junior high which might have helped that along.  Back then I could actually type faster, I think the decrease might have something to do with several children asking me questions while I was doing the typing test!  Things that boost your productivity also help you get more done in the time you have set for your business.  This is a practical helpful tip for me.

A lesson I’d hoped for more on is the lesson about Paying for some services is worth more than using your time to do them.  This is something I’ve been hearing a lot about from other people not running businesses and it intrigues me.  I’ve never been able to afford to pay for any type of help or helper and I am curious how and what others choose.  All of her suggestions are blog related which are great, but not where I’m looking currently.  I had hoped for maybe a menu planning service, a house cleaner, laundry helper, etc.  Most of these things I do on my own but also train my children to help me.  My way of saving time is to make sure my children can and are able to do chores to help around the house so not everything falls directly on me to accomplish.

I really have been enjoying this course and do recommend it.  Even if you’re not a blogger I think you are going to glean quite a bit of information from this about how to balance a business as well as your home.  The title of balancing diapers and deadlines does not mean you have to have small children.  In the unit talking of growing a business with your kids around it does break it down into lessons for several different age groups and you only need focus on the ones that pertain to you.

Learn More

Learn more about this course that is a help for the struggling WAHM by checking out all the reviews linked up on the main blog post over on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.  You can also find Lisa Tanner Writing on facebook, instagram, twitter, and pinterest.