Advice Needed from WAHM Moms!

I don't have advice on the balancing act but my mom has been a med transcriptionist for about 20 years now. She had been working from home up until about 5 years ago, too. I know she loves her job, now she works for a hospital doing the same thing, the job allowed her to stay home during the day, even when we were grown and gone. She would start work at about 5am and usually was done by the early afternoon. I remember having to drive the work to her office by a certain time daily.
She loves the job, the work and the pay but I think right now in the medical field there is a push for docs to do their transcription using a program that will eliminate the need for a 3rd party transcription service. At a certain point, the computer will be able to type as the doc dictates. There have been some problems with the program thus far- but when it is up and running, I think it will eliminate the need for many transcriptionists(my mom being one of them). I also think that many of the big hospital accounts that were given to the transcription service my mom worked for now have in-house transcriptionists. Sadly, the company she worked for was unable to keep the accounts that they had. The other transcriptionists either changed careers, or did like my mom did and went to the hospitals that they had previously been typing for through the company.
A lot of info, I know.... and hopefully some of it is useful. Feel free to contact me if you want more info. My mom is one of the few people who I know that have made a career out of med. trans from home.
I will say this, though. The work was such that she was able to keep a 1/2 eye on us. She really had to spend the time working without much distraction. Eventhough she was in the next room, we basically were to leave her alone to get work done. While we a bit older than your son (ages 3-8 at the beginning)it seemed like we were left alone for much of the day while she was working because the job was often full time. BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do Tupperware, so I guess you can say I am a WAHM, although I still haven't really got the hang of balancing everything myself, I will share with you the tips I have been given. First of all get a schedule. Week by a glance and day by a glance are AWESOME resources. I can e-mail you them if you want. Second, find something special you can let the kids do at the times you need to work, such as play with a special toy or watch their favorite cartoon, movie ect. Make sure he knows these are things that ONLY come out whem mommy is working. One thing you do have on your side is the age, if your 2 year old is still napping you can do alot while he is asleep. Since you will probably be working when they are napping that means they will be awake when you have to do your cleaning, cooking ect. I suggest getting one of the little play cleaning sets, with the little broom and stuff. He can "help" you to clean! Kids also LOVE to feel like they are helping with meals,even play stuff to "help" with dinner is a great way to keep him busy! My daughter used to love helping withthe laundry also. She would play matching games with the socks or sperating the clean laundry into piles for my, mommy's clothes, daddy's clothes, ect. Hopefully this helps a little. I wish I had more for you!!! Maybe get a book on time-management, I am BAD with that...maybe I need to try and take my own advice! GOOD LUCK!!!

I work full time at a demanding job in health care that requires about 25% travel. Also for the past two years I have been a full-time graduate student. I am a married mother of two boys, homeowner and wife. I would say that the reason I have been able to do everything with work and school because of my husband who has shouldered more responsibility of child care and housework. I also recommend getting a housekeeper once or twice a month to keep you sane. I graduate in December and I am looking forward to more time with the family. When I have breaks from school, we make special attention to family time- riding bikes, game or movie night, or just reading. It also helps to schedule the time for your schoolwork- like two days a week so everyone knows when you are unavailable. I am the one that goes to bed long after everyone else and I am usually the first one up.