The second my daughter was born I felt a countdown clock start. I had a year stretching out before me. Time I could dedicate solely to becoming a mother, to learning about who my daughter was. Objectively one year is a lot of time (especially for parental leave, as many parents in other countries are not afforded the luxury of paid leave for an entire three hundred and sixty-five days). But anyone who has met their newborn child for the first time knows that one year will never be enough. I had to go back to my real estate admin job eventually and the idea of becoming a work from home mom, while tempting, seemed impossible. I comforted myself with the knowledge that many parents in Canada had these same struggles and tried to simply cherish the time I had with my daughter.
I, myself, was raised by a strong, independent working mother who had to send me off to childcare at the tender age of three months old (this fact will help you, dear reader, to age me because at that time Canada offered three months parental) and look at me, I survived. In the grand scheme of things, I had it pretty good. But I wanted to know: could I have better? Not just for me. But for my daughter. Becoming a work from home mom still felt like a pipe dream but over that year it was one I thought about often.
How A Work From Home Mom Is Made
When I went on maternity leave, I was an administrative assistant for a real estate company. I had a Masters’ of Arts degree and I was smart (I still am) but I struggled to find a job that didn’t leave me feeling underemployed. Almost every other Millennial I knew had trouble finding well-paying, challenging work. I thought that was just the way things were.
I loved the people I worked for but I wouldn’t say that I was passionate about real estate administration. I was good at it. I was organized. But the only time I felt like I truly loved what I was doing was whenever I had the chance to write. Whether it was helping agents with property descriptions on MLS, grocery store flyer marketing copy, or even crafting the perfectly worded email to soothe an unhappy client, that was when I felt like I truly shined.
I knew that I would have to go back to work. But as I watched my daughter grow, it became increasingly important to me that she see her mother shine always. I wanted to be an example to her in the same way my mom was an example to me. I wanted her to know that jobs and passions could co-exist. I wanted my daughter to know that if I was going to spend my hard earned money to send her to be watched by someone else for eight hours of the day, it had better be for a good reason. And besides, while I loved the people I worked for, the money made barely covered what my childcare fees would be when I returned to work. I would be working just to send her to daycare. That felt wrong. It felt unfair. And I called bullshit.
I made the decision not to go back to my job. I leveraged my love of writing, my organizational skills, my time management and I started looking for opportunities to work from home. It wasn’t easy at first. In fact, I thought maybe I wouldn’t make it and I would have to go back to a job that I could do but didn’t love or even like all that much. And then, my mom sent me a link to the Tangible Words Careers page and I thought what the heck.
How Work From Home Helped Me Gain More Than Just Money
I started as an SEO copywriter for Tangible Words in March of 2017 soon I became a project leader and now I am responsible for managing growth-driven content creation for all Tangible Words inbound marketing clients. That’s a really long way of saying I get to do something I love - writing - for a living. So now my daughter knows that when I use my hard-earned money to send her to daycare it’s because I’m doing something I love. But more than that, I get to do it from home. So that when my daughter needs to be picked up early, our distributed office and flexible work schedule means I can do that. When I want to be able to attend events like field trips, I can do that. I get to drop my daughter off and pick her up every day and I get to show her that you can love what you do with people support you because they are parents too.
Not only have I been given the gift of more time for my daughter, I am also given support - to grow, to learn, to make mistakes, to succeed, and even to pursue passions outside of my job. Tangible Words has allowed me to make my dream of becoming a work from home mom a reality; it’s also given me financial independence, growth opportunities, and a future I feel proud of.
Applying to Tangible Words was the best decision I could have made for my family and for myself. So what I’m really trying to say is, thanks Mom.
If you’re thinking about taking the leap and working from home or if you want to become a work from home parent, visit the Tangible Words career page.
