I'm putting in my resignation at my job tomorrow (gulp). I'm super nervous, I love my job, my boss, my coworkers, but my schedule is killing me and not working for our family. Our location is closing temporarily to build a new building in February and farming out our workers to other locations so it seems like a good time. I will be working through the first week of February and once I'm done I will be WAH (kind of) selling Lularoe. I'm not expecting a ton of money but some income would be helpful and make me feel better. I guess my question is what can I do to ease the transition? Any tips or advice? Should I not do it? (totally kidding)
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I think making a schedule at home is key to sanity. A week can seem like an awfully long time to be home alone with your kid if you don't have stuff planned. Especially in the mornings. Like we get up and do breakfast and play and then every single day we get ready for the day at 930-945 and head out to do something (grocery, target, other errands, park, library, play dates, etc). Otherwise the day just feels forever long.
Also, Fia sleeps later (8) so I set an alarm for 7 or 715 every morning so I can get up and eat breakfast and shower and read a little before I start mom duty. I feel like having a little time to myself in the morning is important, especially since she moved to one nap.
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@Mae: This. Yes. Solid advice.
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My only advice would be not to expect significant income from selling the clothes. I would not leave a comfortable salary to be an independent sales consultant unless it was 100% about wanting a lifestyle change, and I was sure we could be financially secure even if I made $0. You just never know how successful you'll be at something like that.
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I would make sure that your resume is updated and you're ready to interview, not because you're not going to be successful, but sometimes opportunities come up when you're not expecting them and it's better to be ready.
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@Truth Bombs: I'm not. We will be comfortable on DH salary I just wanted to join because I like the clothes and buy a lot. I said nothing about me leaving my job to sell clothes, I planned on quitting before I got into Lularoe. I'm leaving because I see my kid once every 24 hours. Like I said in the post I'm not expecting much of an income at all. Not sure how your advice suppose to help me transition to staying at home but whatever.
@looch: I've updated my resume and I've also sent a file of all my programs and performance evaluations to my home email so I can put it into my portfolio. I do want to have everything ready in case staying home just doesn't seem to be a good fit.
@Mae: thanks, I had started getting into a routine right when maternity leave ended, of course. Hoping to get into the swing of things with his new schedule and such.
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@Mae: All of this!
I would just tell you to not stress too much. I used to WAH 4 days per week and LO was in daycare - so it was not a traditional job but much more like one than what you plan to do.
We moved a few months ago and I essentially SAH though I have one small freelance client that I work on during LO's naps. Like you, I really liked my job but I felt strongly that me SAH was best for our family.
I am kind of surprised that it has not been that hard. A lot of the reactions I got from folks were that LO would be bored after going to daycare, and that I would not enjoy being with a toddler all day every day. But I'm so much happier, LO is absolutely blossoming and even DH who was on board but more neutral says frequently he is so glad I SAH now. I really spent a lot of time thinking about what we would do every day, how I could "teach" LO, what if I got overwhelmed or burned out on 24/7 parenting, etc. etc. You can find some of my old threads about it.
It's not always sunshine and rainbows but truly it is pretty great and I feel very lucky. When you ask for advice to ease the transition, do you mean for you, your LO or professionally? Professionally I would say that if you want to be "serious" about your business, have a dedicated work space and work time. For me, that is nap time. It is hard to not want to do chores or even relax during naps! It helps if you go to your work space (and drink coffee to keep going).
But as for you and your LO, ultimately I would just say enjoy your extra time together and don't worry about it too much
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@daniellemybelle: thank you! This is so, so great to hear. I am super worried about LO transition as he loves daycare and gets a lot of stimulation there. I'm already planning on doing story times at the library and we have a zoo membership, plus we are planning on getting a pass to our science center. I also do kids programming activities at my job so I have a feeling I will be planning stuff for us to do at home too. I am worried about my transition a bit will I go crazy will I be bored? Not nearly as I worry about being out of the work force for an indeterminate amount of time. I know eventually I'll go back so I worry about how to maintain skills and keep my resume active. I plan to volunteer with my company which will help a bit I think.
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@MrsTal: A big motivation for me to freelance is to keep my skills fresh and my resume up to date. In my industry it is not about how many hours per week you work, but just about the skills you use when you do work and the results you get. So I'm confident I could go apply for a competitive job after a few years off.
I think volunteering with your company is a great way to keep your resume updated. Are there any skills you have to use with your Lularoe business that would fit into the skill set for your industry? I would include those on your resume. If there is not much overlap I might think about different work you could do from home that is more closely related - though it sounds like you are really excited to do Lularoe so maybe that's not an option.
I also don't know anything about your industry but think about opportunities for project based work with your company or similar companies that would like your expertise. For example, you said you planned kids programming, so if there is a big annual event you usually plan, you could offer to contract to plan that event. Even if they are replacing you, they may value your experience with that event enough to want to contract you for just that.
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@MrsTal: is your LO transitions out of daycare to SAH with you? I'm not clear on that from your post. I WAH. The first two years I had LO1 home with me and it was difficult, to say the least, to balance work and childcare. My kind of work really needs silence and concentration and I could only ever work when my LO was napping...so it wasn't very productive. Now that I have two LOs and they are both in daycare, it works really well for our family. I usually have the flexibility of being the parent on call in case of illness or appointments and I've been able to develop my business quite a bit. I'm not sure what selling Lularoe entails as far as how much time you need to commit or working conditions, but I would suggest having some sort of childcare option a few hours a week to be able to get work related things done.
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@lamariniere: yes, he will be pulled out of daycare and home full time with me. Well most of the time, he may go into grandma care one day a week if I need to get work done or have appointments but that I need to play by ear.
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@MrsTal: that's great that you have the grandma care option! Childcare was really my biggest challenge when I started WAH since in the beginning I didn't make enough or work enough regular hours to justify hiring help.
It's not always sunshine and rainbows but truly it is pretty great and I feel very lucky. Reply
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