Why I Became a "Work at Home Mom"

I worked as a social worker for several years in Wilmington, NC. The stress and political underhanded activites were unbearable. One day, I cleaned out my desk and walked out of my office. My supervisor asked me, "Janice, what are you going to do now?" I turned to look at her and replied, " I am going to look to Jesus and live!" At that time, I did not have a clue what I was going to do. This was June of 2003.

Over one year later, I was working from home and making a living without all of the stress and headaches that I had experienced on my previous job.

This was not an easy journey. For several months after I walked away from a $27,000 a year job, I found myself on foodstamps and receiving unemployment benefits. I had lost my governmment benefits, and became one of the millions of uninsured, middle aged women of today. To be honest, I was terrified. I did not have a clue what I was going to do. I had four children at home, a car note, and a mortgage to pay. My husband worked full time. But at that time, my income was the glue that held our finances together. I remember praying everyday for God to take care of my children. I asked God to please not allow them to do without because of my decision. My oldest daugther was applying for college and I was worried that I would not be able to help her at all.

One day, while I was sitting at my computer, I came across the WAHM.COM website. This was a place where hundreds of work at home moms gathered daily to discuss children, finances, and most of all, how to get a work from home job. I immediately began to fill out applications for each company that I came across. A few days later, I received several responses to my applications, and the interviewing process had began.

I have to admit that I ran across several scams and disappointments. The first job that I had accepted sounded wonderful. But they required me to purchase their long distance service. I needed to work so badly until I did not do any research at all on this company and accepted their offer for employment. My first paycheck was for only $40.00. This was not a whole lot of money, but it encouraged me to work harder for this company in order to average at least $200. per week. That never happened. The next company that contacted me was a legitmate data entry job as a court researcher. It was an easy job that required me to viisit our local register of deeds office at least once a week. That was not hard for me to do. Later, I finally found a legitimate job as an appointment setter and lead generator for a company in Spartanburg, SC. I was paid $9.00 per hour for 32 hours of work. I had finally found my first hourly paying work at home job that did not require high speed internet. I was living in the country at that time and high speed internet was not availabe in our area.

There are several lessons to be learned about working from home. First, you really do have to discipline yourself and stay away from the distractions of the television, and telephone.My work day began at 9:00 am each day. I scheduled my lunch break at 3:00 pm . That is when my children came home from school. My break lasted until 5:00 pm. I worked two more hours until 7:00 pm. After my hours were completed on my hourly paying job, I worked for at least two hours on my data entry job. I was paid weekly by paypal for both jobs.

We relocated our family to a small town a few miles away in December of 2005. Our new home included high speed internet services. This opened many doors for me to work for other companies that paid more money. I kept my data entry job and applied for a marketing company as a customer service representative. I was now earning between $10-$15.00 per hour plus bonus money and commission. This became my permanent full time job. I learned earlier that it is always good to have more than one WAHJ. So, I applied for a job as a proofreader for a digital book publisher. I also found another job as a survey telephone interviewer.

Sometimes the software will act up when I am working for one company. While the techs are working on that situation, I can work on my data entry jobs. I learned how to multi-task by doing data entry while I was waiting for calls on my customer service job. I set my own hours and I am available for my nine and ten year old if they should need me during the day or night. If they are sick or home from school, I do not have to hire a day care provider to take of them.

As I look back four years ago when I was working on a well paying job, loaded with benefits, and compare where I am now, I still prefer to work from home. I save hundreds of dollars each month on gas, child care, and wardrobe. However, I am responsible for paying my own taxes and social secuity. No, I do not work in my pj's. I get dressed each day , to sit at my computer and go to work. My office is away from all of the action that goes on in a normal family. I cook dinner for my family on my lunch break or do my laundry.I pick my children up from school, spend time with them and return to work at 8:00 pm to finish my hours for the day.

I do not reccommend working from home for everyone. As I stated earlier, you really do have to be disciplined. You also have to research eachcompany that you apply for. There are thousands of scammers waiting for people like you and I to apply to work for their company so that they can steal your identification or use you to launder illegal funds into their accounts.

If you are looking for a legitmate work at home job, I strongly suggest that you do a thorough research on each company that you are applying for. Check with the BBB to be certain that you are applying for a legitimate business. You will find tons of information and many legitmate, researched work at home jobs by asking questions and talking with other WAHM's who are working for a legitmate company.