by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham
As any work-at-home-mom of school age children knows, summer vacation can be an especially challenging time, balancing work and spending time with your kids. So this summer I’ve been looking for fun ways to involve my kids in some of the things I need to do for work.
For example, a couple of weeks ago I needed to photograph a new product, a personalized name banner. I could have easily photographed it in the backyard or in my daughter’s bedroom. But it was a nice day, and I was caught up on orders, so I suggested to my kids that we go to their favorite park to take the photos. On the way we stopped at a coffee shop for pastries and stopped at the grocery store to pick up some helium balloons.
When we were at the park they had a great time running around and suggesting spots that they thought would be good places to take photos. It ended up being a really fun morning, and I love how the photos turned out.
They especially loved being able to release the balloons when we were done and watch them fly away.
Last week we went to a candy store and a bakery in search of some fun props so I could photograph my new party favor tags. They loved helping me pick out treats and were happy to help me photograph them knowing that when we were done they would get to eat everything and share their bounty with their friends!
Of course it’s not always possible to involve my kids in what I’m doing for work. There are plenty of summer days, when they don’t have camps or other activities scheduled, when they need to entertain themselves for most of the day, and we only have an hour or two to do something fun at the end of the day. But as much as possible I’m trying to do anything on my to-do list that could be turned into a fun activity while they’re home and save the more tedious in-front-of-the-computer-all-day tasks for when they’re back in school.
I’d love to hear how other WAHMs involve their kids in their businesses – please leave a comment and share your ideas!
