WAHM with sick kidsWith a cold Winter, a work from home business and 2 little kids I am often left to juggle and re-juggle my priorities to fit in with the myriad of illnesses that the kids suffer that prevent them from attending childcare.


So what do we do about sick kids, our own businesses and balance?

It’s funny because I used to work in the Corporate world and when I look back to what happened in those days...

I’d get the phone call, pickup the sickie, and inevitably spend the rest of the day and the next at home on the couch comforting sick child and answering the odd phone call to keep the ball rolling at work.

It seems so much easier than when you’re a WAHM and feel compelled to keep working at full pace with babe in arms and running yourself into the ground to do it!!!!!


How can we still get our jobs done as WAHMs whilst tending to our sick children?

1.If we know that we’ll be caring for a sick child for the day and trying to run a business, plan a little bit over breakfast. Take 5 minutes to write down the absolutely, must do phone calls, emails and tasks of the day. Once they’re out of your head and on paper you’ll find it much easier to work out where they’re going to fit into the day. Everything else can wait until after dark or the next day.

2. Don’t let guilt enter your head, it’s about SURVIVAL and you may need to use the TV, ipad, playstation, whatever you can to distract your sickie for the half hour periods you can take to get your must do list complete.

3. Plan an easy dinner that you know is guaranteed to be eaten by small people. Buy a cooked chicken if you can get out of the house, throw together a pasta bake and leave it ready to go when dinnertime comes around. Give them baked beans from a can if that’s what they want, just make it easy for yourself.

4. Get out of the house if you can with the sickie, just go for a short walk, push the pram, anything to give you time out to reassess your priorities for the day workwise and personally. 30 minutes in the fresh air may do you both wonders and prevent cabin fever setting in.

5. Remember why you’re a WAHM and not tied to a desk job, it’s so you can be there for your kids, be a Mum when they need you and perhaps this is the day they need you! If this is the case, can your business wait until bedtime? For most things, yes. Obviously deal with the urgent ones in those short slots of time when the sickie is resting, sleeping or entertained. Take time to sit on the couch, read stories and give them the TLC they need, the rest of the world will wait (most of the time)!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat at the computer, small child strapped to me because he won’t sleep in the cot or pusher and replied to emails in that short window of opportunity. It is frustrating to have your “work days” taken away from you but at the end of the day we were all given the gift of children to care for them and look after them, the work sometimes needs to be secondary. I know this may seem controversial and I know how frustrated I get not being able to fully utilise my work days but really, how often do your kids just want their “Mama” to look after them with undivided attention?


How do you cope when sick kids interrupt your important WAHM working days?

Debbie Marks is a Qualified Business Coach who specialises in helping Mums gain clarity about how they want to live their lives, then empowers them to make it a reality! She is a Mum of 2 little boys who used to work in the corporate world as an IT Project Manager. She now runs her own business (and probably works harder than ever) and choses her hours and indulges her passion to empower other Mums to make their own choices and choice the lifestyle that they WANT. If you want to tweak your lifestyle to work better for you then check out her website or blog, or contact her directly for more information.

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