Self Employment and School Holidays

lifeatthezoo | November 16, 2016 | Blogging | No Comments

You may have seen my mini series this month… which started off as a bit of a RANT (sorry everyone)… but I got to the point where I realised that people simply do NOT GET what I do. I thought it would be worth to write it all down, but also point out what my life is really like. So here is a little about “what I actually do all day”, how I make money and today, about how I cope with the holidays…

In many ways, yes, it is BRILLIANT. I have flexible working hours, which means I can be there for all my kids’ school trips and plays, I can be there for after school and play dates and always there for an emergency. It also means, that I can say “sod it, I am exhausted, I need a nap”….

All this however comes at a price – I ALWAYS have to make up the hours somewhere else (right now it is Sunday morning, 8:45am, the kids are swimming and i am having my “lie in”.. see where this is going..?). In many ways, I am probably the worst workaholic there is. I regularly catch up on things I want to get done in the evenings – puff – another 2-3 hours gone (all be it front of the telly).

I often get ” You are so LUCKY- you get so much time off” (ie when kids are off etc)

if there is a long weekend, a school holiday or WORST OF ALL a FAMILY holiday coming up, my workload doubles/ triples/ quadruples – as my website, my youtube channel and my facebook page are all populated the WHOLE YEAR ROUND. THEY NEVER EVER TAKE A BREAK. EVER. So if I go away for 10 days, I have to do ALL THE WORK f0r 10 days + 2 (so that my first day back isn’t stupid crazy) BEFORE I GO. A social media audience is fickle and you have to be present 24/7, or else they move onto a competitor
Which means, working harder BEFORE the event and often doing 2-4hours of work in the evenings too.

So yes, it is FANTASTIC to be flexible, but seriously, it is a constant balance of “fitting it all in somewhere”.. and never TRULY having any downtime.

Whenever someone suggests a holiday or a weekend away, my first thought is always “Oh no, I will have to front load all my work”. I mean, ALWAYS. THAT is what I think first. THEN I think, oh actually that could be quite nice and I am sure I can manage all the prework and it will be worth it.

Sad I know. But that is the price I pay for being self employed!!! I am my worst on boss!!!!

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