1. Choose something you are passionate about that also has a workaround; I love photography, I have always loved photography, but the demands of being a photographer is a lot and cannot work with me being a stay at home mum. There are events you have to go for, outdoor shoots etc This is why I decided to choose a niche of photography that offers me the flexibility to be a full-time mum and a part-time photographer. Product photography. In this line of photography, I don’t have to attend meetings, see my clients, they drop their products off and pick up when I am done. I shoot my products at night when my son is in bed and it’s a win-win for everyone.

2. Put in some structure: The structure I put in place is this: I created a website, put my prices on there and on my Instagram- this greatly reduces the amount of back and forth on pricing. I give myself about five working days to deliver a job and I communicate that to the client. The client arranges for drop off,  picks up and anyone that wants a meeting will have to choose between Tuesdays and Thursdays(the days I don’t homeschool) . When you communicate these in writing the client knows that it’s your policy and they will abide by it.

3. Be good at what you do: When you are good or keep improving at what you do when you put all these structures, the client won’t mind having to actually ‘wait’ for you or want you to be their go-to person.                                                                                                   
4. Put yourself out there: The goal of the business at the end of the day is to make money right? You have to also do the work that it requires to put yourself out there. When you are a stay at home mum and you are mostly almost home, you have to leverage on social media. Learn what you need to learn to ensure you make your social media pages appealing, use the time your children are in school or when they go to bed (If you do this once a week, in 4 weeks you would have made some progress), talk to everyone about your business and let them patronise you, bad as e bad, small change will enter.
5. Don’t be desperate: Don’t be in the place of desperation. People can smell it from a mile away. Desperation will come from you being too quick to give a discount because you want to make a sale, overly reminding a client that says “I will get back to you” all these things show. When people sense your desperation they would most likely not want to do business with you. Be confident in yourself, your value and your price and let it ooze out of you!

6. Where you can, give knowledge for free: In the social media world, some people might say content is king but I beg to differ, I would say loyalty is king. Serve people without strings attached and you’d be amazed how these people who now love you will market whatever you decide to sell.                                                                             

We have realised that being a stay-at-home mum is a career and over the next couple of sahm articles we would talk about how we can define all these parts of our lives to create a wholesome experience for us in our stay-at-home-mum season.

Today our focus will be on family life;

We look at how to define your family in these 4 categories;

- Define the family values: This can not be done by you alone but you can facilitate the process. Prepare your spouse and children(if they are old enough) in advance for a family meeting where you are all going to discuss what your values are and the way everyone can stick to those values. Set time aside on a Saturday or Sunday to make this happen. When you are done you will have the final list printed and posted everywhere in the house as a reminder.

Here are a few articles to help with the process:
Article 1
Article 2

It is important to note that the values will continue to evolve over time and this is a new addition, you or your kids may not instantly get it but the values will be imbibed by constantly reinforcing it which is why everyone must be involved in the process.

- Define the family goals: We set individual goals, career goals, financial goals etc but do we remember to set the family goals? What do we want to achieve as a family? It is important that the family has something they are working on together this helps to increase the bond and gives you a sense of direction as a family.
Here are a few articles to help you get started;

Article 1
Article 2

- Define how your family runs: You take some time to define how your family will run;

Here are some questions to answer to define this; 

1. Will you get domestic help?
2. When will your kids wake up? 
3. If you have domestic help, how will they conduct themselves (e.g no phones while they work, deep clean every month, change bedsheet every week, cobwebs, no dishes overnight,  etc.) 
4. How do we go to market? When do we go to the market (weekly, monthly), How do we store food?
5. What is the monthly budget to keep the home running?  

- Schedules & Routines: A routine something you do every day and a schedule is a documentation of how your day will go. This is one of my favourites, creating routines and schedules. Children thrive on routines and it is important that we put our kids in a routine if we haven't already and stick with it. You'd see how much happier they will be. Your routine will be different based on what you decide to do, for example, my routine with my son as a homeschooling mum will be different from a mum who has her child in school. The most important thing is to incorporate all the aspects of your life into it and stick with it.

Here are a few articles to help
Article 1

Having a schedule for everything you want to do each day is also important especially when you stay at home, it feels like the work never ends and there is a tendency to continue without putting the breaks in, it also helps you to be productive and keep track of all your activities. Here is how I create a weekly schedule that I follow;

• Every Sunday I take some time out to plan my week and review my last week. 
• I think through and also based on commitment define where we are going. E.g Events, swimming class, mummy & me class etc. 
• After putting in a journal (I use Power planner) you can also insert into your google calendar or download a scheduling app which will send you reminders. 
• Follow through! 

Are you a stay-at-home mum? How do you define your family life?

1. Family Life: Here you will define how you want your family life to run such that there will and should be progress. This will include, defining what your family stands for, Goals for the family per-time, defining the process with which your family runs, creating routines and schedules for the family, defining how the domestic staff works
2. Business/Job/Hobby (If it applies): Here you will create the road map for either starting your business, getting back into the workforce, starting your hobby and having clear action steps on what to do, timelines and deliverables.
3. Children: Here you track your children, their routine, schedule, academics, values, shortcomings, create action steps on what needs to be done with each child to make them the well-rounded child you want to release to the society.
4. Personal Development: Here you define your personal development goals, what you need to achieve those goals, how you want to achieve it and action steps.
5. Spirituality: Here you map out how you will actively develop your relationship with God, seek opportunities to express your gifts, seek opportunities to serve others and love!

Have you considered being a stay-at-home mum as a career? Do you have a defined career path?

First Impression: The packaging was a bit underwhelming, I got over that quickly as soon as I opened it and smelt it. I absolutely loved the smell and the fact that it was all natural. I am a sucker for that.

What I loved: The smell, I loved that my son loved it. He could even take it without formula - we had a phase where he didn't like milk - I love that the foods are versatile and can be used in different recipes.


[source]


What I didn't like; there was really nothing I disliked about the product , maybe except that it finished quickly. Unfortunately, I had to stop buying from them, on 2 occasions after preparing the meals I saw ant in the food. The first time (first batch I bought) I told them and they replaced it for me but I didn't bother to tell them the second time. I am sure it wasn't from my house because, I had always kept the products in the fridge.


[source]


Verdict: Will I recommend the products? yes! this is just my experience and it has been a lot more difficult to make sure my son has a balanced meal but I would rather go through the difficulty.


[source]

Cost: Each product: N1,400
Full set N6,000 - this included Fish powder and crayfish powder
Rating: 4 Cuddly loves


Have you tried August secrets range of products for your little one? What are your thoughts? 

First Impression: I was so excited when I saw the book online, I pre-ordered it immediately. I love the fact that the book was visually appealing. The quality of the book was above what I expected as per Naija but it wasn't there-there.



What I loved: I love that the book has variety of recipes that at you can use and not only for your baby. I loved the quality of the book, it is better than most prints done by Nigerian authors.




What I didn't like: No attention to details, there was a table of contents with page numbers but the actual pages were not numbered which makes it hard to just skip to what you need.





The structure of the book: There were repeated recipes and I confirmed that.

The quality; I know I said I loved the quality of the book overall but the pictures used shows that they were not deliberate about it. I get that it is a lot of work to make the food and take the pictures but the inconsistency with the images was too much. There were inconsistencies with the fonts and a few errors missed while editing.




Cost: N8,500 (I bought it while it was up for pre-order - don't know how much it costs now)
Rating: 3 Cuddly Love


Will I recommend this? Yes! Because, you can't have too many recipes at your finger tip.

Do you have the August secret Recipe book? What are your thoughts on it?

Please, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and  leave your thoughts in the comment section.

This is the most terrifying thing I have had to go through in all my 7 months of motherhood. It shook me!

I had just finished bathing for my 5 month old - at the time- and I dropped him to get something, he wasn't rolling over yet so I assumed that a few seconds won't hurt the next thing I knew, I heard a cry, turned and saw my naked baby on the floor - that image is etched in my memory.

I lifted him quickly and he stopped crying but I couldn't stop crying- That ugly-face-sobbing kind of cry. It was very terrifying. My husband, heard me cry and came into the room, I told him why I was crying, he took the baby and prayed for him while I picked up my phone to check Google.

I read that I should check his use of the hands and legs, if his pupil is the same size, if he is not sleepy or vomiting. I checked and checked again, he appeared fine and was laughing already but I was convinced that I had ruined him by making him fall, for the next couple of days, every thing he did - like twitch or spit up - I attributed it to the fall in my mind. I was drowning in guilt and ashamed of myself for letting my baby fall off the bed. Then I spoke to my Mum and Sister.

My Mum told me to check his head and make sure he is not crying when I touch any part of his head and if he is fine, I should just let it go and not beat myself up over it.
My sister told me of her experience and said "Don't worry, there will be more falls" and further told me not to feel guilty about it anymore. I kinda let it go after about a week. It wasn't very easy though.

Here's a few things I learnt from that experience.

• If your child is not rolling over yet, just assume he/she is and put a pillow around them if you will look away for even a second. 
• One second is enough for a child to do something swiftly, it's so shocking. You'd wonder how they get the speed. 
• Always have an eye on your baby.
• Let there be a padding on the sides of you bed incase your baby does fall. A rug or foot mat, anything so he/she doesn't land on the bare floor.

and if your baby eventually falls down....

• If your baby is physically alright, STOP WORRYING!!! YOU ARE NOT A BAD MOM!!!!

More Resources on Baby Fall;
Healthline
NewKids Center
Other Mom's Experiences(Don't worry, you are not alone)

Please tell me, When was your baby's first fall? How did you handle it?

• A Snack Stash (Especially if you are breastfeeding): I found myself craving for different things when I started breastfeeding. No one told me that the craving won't end, it felt that I was losing weight fast at the beginning but I wanted to eat twice as much.
  
  I wanted all the junk food to stuff my face in. I later had a stash of go-to snacks to help with the fix
• Breast Pads:
  
  Nothin as embarrassing as a leaking breast. I didn't have a clue how serious it could be but it is verrrry important that you have enough breast pads, especially if you choose to use the disposable ones. 

• Solitude: Being sleep deprived, overwhelmed, tired and feeling like you can't take it any more  comes with the territory of becoming a new mum.

What do you think is essential for a new Mum?

What did you say you won't do before you had kids that you do now after you've had kids?

• A Laptop
• A Phone 
• 2 Google Accounts 
• Internet Connection

Let me know in the comment section; Was this helpful? What have you improvised?