From Full-Time to Freelancer: Life as a Working Mom

mom to workI have always been a career-driven person and knew I wouldn't change once I became a mom. However, due to decisions that were not my own, I was laid off from the job I held for twelve years shortly after I returned from my three month maternity leave.

I work as a creative director in advertising and full-time jobs like those don't come easy. But I was not about to stay home just because someone else decided that's where I should be. So my husband and I decided to keep our nanny (who we had just recently hired) and I dedicated myself to finding a new full-time job.

I never found one.

Instead, I found freelance gigs.

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For the most part, the gigs are two-three week jobs where I work on site. Occasionally, the jobs will require I work from home, but I find that near impossible (leaving the house for an office is one thing but staying in my room with the door shut while my baby plays with someone else is unbearable) so I will work out of a Starbucks instead.

For much of the first year, there were stressful breaks between each job when I wasn't sure when paid work would come next. But on the plus side, I got to enjoy that extra time with my daughter.

At some point last year, two old supervisors of mine started their own ad agency. In the beginning, the company was run out of one of their apartments and I did small jobs for them here and there. But in the past few months, the company has taken off, rented a small downtown office (which is a lovely change from the huge corporate space we all used to work in) and have me working for them pretty much full-time.

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On the surface, I work every day from nine to five. But there are actually major lifestyle changes from my old job.

For starters, I get paid by the hour so when I leave at 5:30 to relieve the nanny, I am off the clock. I can also leave for a pediatrician's appointment or a preschool conference without feeling guilty because I am not billing for that time. And although, I will occasionally work late or on the weekend, I have the freedom to say no without the fear of being fired.

More importantly, I truly love my job. If I had to sit in a sea of cubicles at my old corporate office, working for people I didn't like on assignments that felt tailor-made to kill me, I would have had a much harder time swallowing the time spent away from my daughter.

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I still have moments of working mom guilt (I wrote about them here). But over the last year and a half, I have discovered that working freelance works better for me than working on staff. My career may be on a slightly different track but my income hasn't suffered and I have more time to focus on my family.

I have also channeled a lof of my ambition towards that little thing I toyed with when I first found myself out of work- my blog. Something I now can't imagine living without.

Basically, I learned that I can still be career driven without being part of a traditional corporate track. And I can work at a company while essentially working for myself.

The definition of "work-life balance" is different for every working parent.

I happened to find mine entirely by accident.

- Ilana Wiles

For a look into just how much Ilana's daily life has changed, visit Babble

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