The Summer Juggle: How to balance being a self-employed parent during the summer holidays

Being a working mum during the summer is hard

I started my business so I could spend more time with my son.

As a single mum, I was drawn in by business influencers who flaunted time freedom and days spent playing with their little ones while money flowed into their bank accounts on autopilot.

They seem so calm and perfect in their spotless houses with their full nights of sleep and home-cooked bread.

I wanted that.

Well, this summer I’m coming up on my 4th year as a self-employed, single mum.

And I’m here to tell you that the whole marketing campaign around time freedom as a self-employed parent is absolute bullshit.

Now let me start by saying that I have two great loves in my life: my son and my business.

And the thing about those loves that is—to be frank—exhausting, is that they both require a lot of attention.

For most of the year, though, I manage pretty well (I think!) by separating time and affection for each of my great loves, and I make it a point to be hands-on as much as possible.

I have an amazing village to help when I need it, and I’ve gotten pretty good at a few things that make the holidays less stressful…

…but come September, I’m still drained. And often cried out.

With a few summers under my belt now, I’m putting plans into place to make this one the best yet.

So here are my plans and bits of wisdom to help show parents how to balance being self-employed with kids.

Plan 1: Create physical boundaries between work and childcare

Owning a business means working all the time.

As a copywriter, June and July are often my busiest months, because that’s when other business owners are gearing up to launch new projects or finally have the annual funds to outsource work.

And since it’s my sole responsibility to put a roof over our heads and food in our bellies, this amount of work is great for my bottom line.

But during my time with my boy, it’s my priority to focus on him…not my work.

My office is in an alcove in my living room, so it’s hard to completely shut off my work mind while we play in front of the sofa…

…and that’s why I get us out and about as much as possible.

When I create a physical boundary between my work time and my mum time, it’s infinitely easier to turn off business-owner mode and spend quality time with my kid.

Now, there is some strategy here, and some non-physical boundary work to put in place.

My clients know that I have specific work hours and that I won’t be answering emails or calls at other times. I’ve told them what to expect, and they mostly respect that.

So when I’m away from my little ‘corner office’, my phone is off and my emails are left untouched.

You get bonus points here if you have an actual office door you can close and walk away from!

Plan 2: Ignore social media influencers that make you feel bad

By now, we all know that social media is a highlight reel and not an accurate representation of people’s lives.

But it’s still really fucking hard to look at the shiny morning routines and perfectly tidy homes of business influencers and not feel shit about yourself.

So here’s the pro tip: 

Just don’t look.

Ha. Might sound simple… but it’s actually harder than you think!

I’ve come to realise that some influencers make me feel motivated, and some trigger me. 

And protecting my peace has been as easy as following those who inspire me and unfollowing those who make my stomach twist up with mum guilt.

This is especially true in September when Insta-perfect mum bosses start flaunting their ‘relaxed’ season as they shout about autumn being like the new year for business owners.

Meanwhile, I’ve spent Septembers crying on the phone to my mum as I ask her to watch my boy for an afternoon so I can finish up a project.

For me, September has been a hard comedown after a couple of months of barely scraping by with the energy needed to run a business and raise a child.

And I hate giving up my time with my son.

So this year, I’m not letting those ‘relaxed’ September influencers into my headspace.

Ain’t nobody got time to look at that and feel shitty.

Plan 3: Delegate and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

I’m lucky to be at a point in my business where I can outsource some of the work.

And while it’s hard to let go and trust others to get things done, I’d much rather outsource work tasks than mum tasks.

This is easier than I thought it would be.

While there are things in my business that only I can do, there’s a lot of other stuff that is actually cheaper for me to hire out than to do myself.

The first step is figuring out what your time is worth. 

If it costs less per hour to hire a virtual assistant or social media manager than what I charge per hour for the stuff only I can do…well then of course it makes more financial sense to delegate that task than to do it all alone.

So look at your to-do list and figure out what you can hand off.

Plan 4: Automate as much as possible

Some extra work upfront can save hours in the future, and we’re living in the best time in history to automate an online business. 

We have the tech now to upload and prep social media posts, emails, and admin. 

What’s better, we can plug in a time for those things to be posted or sent, so our business and marketing can run while we’re running around in the forest with the kids.

To make that level of automation happen, though, there’s a lot of set-up on the front end.

My strategy here is to book a week into my diary for prep.

During this week, I can create my content, write my newsletters and regular client emails, and I can schedule them to go out.

Then, I can plan to take some time off knowing that everything is running in the background without me.

It might be an intense week as I set everything up, but once it’s done, I don’t have to think about it again, and I’ll get double the time off!

Plan 5: Calendar block a week ahead

It may seem counterintuitive, but the stricter we are with our time, the more freedom we have with it.

As a business owner, every hour of the day could be business time if I let it be. 

But, if I strictly block out the time to get my business tasks down and then follow through on those blocks, my head can be completely on my little one when it’s mum time.

To do this, I calendar block a week ahead.

On a Monday morning, I’ll take out my diary and to-do list. 

Then I plug my tasks into the diary as if they’re appointments I can’t miss.

The trick here is to know how much time each task takes and then to actually do the task in that time.

Running my schedule this way means that I complete tasks during designated times, and when things are done on time, they don’t cram up space in my head later.

And when my attention is off work, it can be wholly and completely on being a mum.

Plan 6: Accept the way our world works

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the way our society functions.

Even in 2-parent households with a mum and a dad, the mum is often expected to do most of the parenting.

We’re the ones expected to leave our jobs or take loads of time off when kids come along.

We’re the ones the school calls when there’s an issue to be dealt with, even if we’re working full-time like the dad.

As a self-employed mum, I’m often expected to rearrange my schedule and be more flexible because of my perceived time freedom.

Even now, in the 21st century, mums are the ones often expected to do the cooking, cleaning, appointment setting, emotional support….the list goes on!

And we’re expected to do all that on top of working full-time.

Do we expect the same from dads yet?

While we might be heading in that direction, we still have a hell of a long way to go.

So I notice these things and I work on accepting them.

That doesn’t mean I’m not working to change those views…

...fuck no. 

We need to change that paradigm.

But there’s only so much I can do from my little corner of the world.

So instead of living in a constant state of anger and stress, I accept that this is the current state of things, I recognise it, and I work through it.

And I still do what I can to shift things in a more equitable direction.

How to balance being a self-employed parent during the summer holidays?

My plan isn’t perfect. 

I'm not sure it ever will never be.

But slow and steady progress is the best way to go when learning to be a full-time parent and a business owner at the same time.

So if you’re ready to take writing off your plate, delegate your emails, sales pages, or web copy. Getting a copywriter on retainer before the busy season means a bunch of time back into your diary.

Have a look here to see how we might be able to help you for the next kids holidays!