Some Practicalities of WAHMing

Ok, I thought it was time for some more cute photos, and they don't come much cuter than my little girl.

So, the practicalities of WAHMing. Basically you have 4 options.

• Daycare or baby sitting, which pretty much defeats the purpose, although some people find a day a week is good. It would also make a difference if you have grandparents around who would love to have them.


• Somehow have an incredibly independent child who lets you work ALL ON YOUR OWN. Personally I'm still waiting to have a shower or go to the toilet on my own. I must say DD is getting a lot more independent and will wander off to play by herself, but I don't get much done in 10 minutes here and there. There is also the option that some kids can do their own thing down one end of the table while you work at the other, but whatever I'm doing is usually much more interesting.


• Work only when they are asleep or your partner is there to look after them. I do have the most fantastic husband, he loves taking DD in the morning and letting me sleep in, and he puts her to bed at night so I get to start some work at a decent hour. Her naps are also settling down, I can usually count on almost an hour's work, although whether I feel like it at that time of day is more problematical. Hmmm, maybe half an hour. Actually, after I check emails and the forums more like, oh, it's not worth it for that time, I'll just keep looking at this.


• Find some way to include them. Getting DD to hold things down while I am cutting is starting to work, although every now and then she feels the need to yank them instead. Painting is much more successful.

Here she is painting the terry tabs that go on my nappies for the snappis to attach to. It is so gorgeous, she carefully straightens them and helps lay them out, then hands me the pins. She tries to pin too, but the little fingers aren't strong enough. Then here I've set her up with all the ones that need to be blue. I chose to go with a paint rather than dye because it is non-toxic and washable, and you can thin it with straight water.

In the background are all the other colours I set up and painted very quickly! And no need to clean up afterwards, I just put the paints away then kept giving her More! More! water and she basically cleaned the containers and brushes. Of course then it dripped all over her and she was Cold! Cold!

Then after we dried and washed them she pegged them all up on her own little clothesline. I should have got a photo of that too, she loves having her own line and always helps hang out the washing. The problem is convincing her to let it dry before bringing it in.

Oh, why is she naked? She's a toddler and it's paint! Why do you think she's naked? (It is high 30s here.)

What a difference a day or two makes.

I was going to post a couple of days ago, and while it wouldn't have been negative it would have been a bit blah. While I'm officially over the gastro I'm feeling a bit off, and first trimester exhaustion is still a big factor (Yay! I'm pregnant! and I've remembered to tell all my family so I can post it here now!). I've had to accept that I won't just get over it with time, at some stage I'm actually going to have to sleep :) Then DH took DD over the weekend so I could catch up, which was wonderful, but I wanted to go swimming with them :( To be honest, I just kept thinking of all the things I could be doing if I didn't have to run a business (sleep).

But then it started getting better. I went swimming on Sunday, so we got some family time when we were all upright and no-one was spewing. Then I got an enquiry about an order. Then I got a really nice email from a customer. Then they ordered an entire stash!!!!!!! (I definitely need some smilies here) Then there were some more compliments on another forum.

So is this the fifth or sixth time I've talked about the emotional ups and downs of WAHMing? Sorry to be a bit repetitive, I think you get the message.

Excuse me, I'm off to check the fabric stash to see if I have enough to fill this order. And DH is already saying "See? I told you you should cut out lots at once."

On a happier note ...

Everything seems to be settling down and working itself out nicely, although I've been so busy I haven't been on there much to find out.

The visit to the city was fun, I picked up some Christmas fabrics as well as my new sewing machine. I had one the store lent me while it was off being fixed, and it is great. Whatever the adjustment seems to have fixed all the annoying bits as well and it is now fun to sew again rather than frustrating.

I've got some Christmas prints but I also bought some plain colours to do appliques. These are a custom order that isn't finished yet, but I was really pleased with how they've turned out. The sewing machine even coped with the metallic thread for the tinsel on the tree, which it wasn't doing before. There are matching T-shirts to go with this order too and it's going to be gorgeous, now I just have to stop mucking around and sew it!

Just had to edit to add the completed sets.

Well, that was nasty.

Been a long time since I've posted, mainly because nothing much was going on. I was just pottering along trying different things. Then I went to check online before going to bed and discovered all sorts of things were happening. I'm not going to say what it was, some people will know or be able to work it out but while it was very over the top I don't think it was anything that hasn't happened before in other industries so you don't really need to know details. I'm only writing about it because this blog is supposed to help people see what it is like being a WAHM.

I suppose I've been a bit naive. It's funny, I've been involved in discussions about stealing designs and copying, but I suppose I had this image that this is a nice little cottage industry where we are all trying to help each other stay home with our children and push our favourite products at the same time. If someone asked I would have said that it is a good thing that there are so many WAHMs out there doing nappies, because all babies are different and the huge range means you are sure to find something that suits your baby. Unfortunately some other WAHMs and even customers don't seem to agree with me and there is a lot of competition that seems to get nasty. And then of course it all becomes tit for tat and gets out of control.

Maybe my perspective is shaped because I have a husband who is able to support me and my business. I am trying to treat this as a genuine business, not a hobby, but to be perfectly honest anything beyond breaking even is a bonus. I've been very careful to set up fallback positions and alternatives so we don't lose too much money, even if I had to pack it in tomorrow. Maybe for other people it is more important to make a profit or they have more invested. I definitely have as much emotionally invested, it hurts when a week goes by with no orders, or when I have lots of people visiting the site but not buying. You definitely start to wonder what you're doing wrong and why no-one likes you. And it's wonderful when I find a link that a customer has put up recommending my products, it pretty much makes up for the bad times. (So I just need a few more of these, hint, hint.)

Anyway, what happened had nothing to do with me directly, but it could impact on me. To me it was unethical, and I was very tempted to react. I definitely don't blame the others who did, a huge part of me agrees with them. However I decided not to, and I just wanted to share some of my reasoning.

As both an educator and as a parent I have to believe that mistakes are to be learnt from, and I have to believe in second chances. I have done stupid things in my time, and other people have given me the chance to redeem myself and rebuild those relationships. So tempted as I am, I have to extend that chance to the people in the wrong here. I definitely don't believe in forgive and forget, I'm far too vindictive and nasty for that :), but I believe in letting people earn back trust. And if they don't, I'll be able to say that at least I tried.

Because ultimately, the only person who's behaviour matters to me is me. I can be angry at other people, but I don't have to look in their mirror or live with their conscience. All I can do is behave in a way that I can look back and say, "Yes, I like that person and I am proud of them."

Re-stocking

Well that took a lot longer than I thought. Just lots of things happening, so it took me a lot longer to get them sewn than it has. A few silly mistakes as well which slowed things down.

DH has come up with a good suggestion. He has made us a timetable for our work times, family times, times with DD etc. This tells me how long I have every week to spend on the store. I then work out how long it takes to make an individual nappy. This is a bit tricky because I make them in batches, but I can make a batch of 7 or so easily in a week (or at least I can normally). So my target is to make 5 every week, no matter what I sell. This gives me a bit of time left over to do other things like admin, and hopefully if I stick to something like this I won't get caught again. Of course, it would be nice to be selling more than this :) but I don't really want that pressure at the moment. Maybe later!

My other big news is that I have a store on WAHMania. I am doing the admin stuff at the moment, hopefully it will be ready to be activated on Friday. At the moment it will just have stock from the store, but I also have some nice fabrics I am playing with and would like to get at least one special nappy done for the opening.

All's right with the world

Well, DH came and got us so we are all together again :). It makes such a difference.

And everything is starting to come together, I think I have sorted out the non-payer (the old exploding computer trick (now I come to think of it, half of you will be too young to remember Get Smart)). I got a big order which has just about cleaned me out, she ordered a nappy before and I was about to email and ask how it was going when another order came through, so I guess it must be working! So I am back to sewing nappies, which is nice. I wasn't sure how long it would take before I needed to re-stock.

You know the feeling - should I be saying "I've been open a couple of weeks and I've sold this many! Yay!" or "I've been open a couple of weeks and I've only sold this many :(." After the big order, I'll go with the Yay!

Getting the hooded towels sorted as well, so I will be able to add them to the site and get another newsletter out to my subscribers, then I have to decide what to work on next - is it getting too late for the sleepsacks, with the time needed for testing, should I get the sunhats and clothes going instead? Oh, and then there's the accounts I couldn't do while we were away, I have a huge pile of receipts to sort through. Sewing nappies is much more fun.

Drilling out snaps on soft stretchy fabric ...

is NOT my idea of a good time. I managed to get the entire thing wrapped around the drill twice, even with someone else holding it for me, and eventually ripped the snap off grrrr. DHs response was that you just need strong fingers to hold it. I replied, you mean we need a clamp of some sort. "No, you just need strong fingers." Darling, you may have strong fingers but WE need a clamp. (Alternatively I could just put the snaps in the right way round the first time.)

So that sleepsack is in a bag until DH arrives to drill out the snaps for me, and I am making one for my nephew's birthday. I wanted to send one off to be tested so I could start selling them, but it will have to be next week.

Bit depressing, the orders have dried up and I have had my first non-paying customer. It was very lucky I didn't send the order off because it was all packed, but my Mum and DH told me off and it was a good thing I waited. I have sent a couple of emails and not got any reply, there is this package sitting there looking at me. I just don't get it - surely if you change your mind it is not too hard to contact someone and let them know? Especially when there is a custom bit to the order. My hope is that they have forgotten to go back to do the direct debit and don't check their emails. So if you are starting to get worried that your parcel from me hasn't arrived yet, contact me! The really annoying bit is that I have been contacted about that nappy, I don't know whether to hold out a bit longer or let the other person know it is available.

I knew that the hunters would dwindle, now I'm having to think of other advertising strategies and have been looking at all the parenting websites. Unfortunately some of them do it in alphabetical order and W is rather far down. Might have to revamp the budget a bit. (Budget? Hah! you need money to budget!) Of course I'm hoping that the people who have bought things like them and start to tell other people about them. The trick is to get enough out there to get word of mouth going!

I do wonder how other people manage that sort of thing. Is it because they have such a fantastic product that people want to tell everyone about it? Do they choose the chatterbox testers who they know will rave about it? Are they a social butterfly and have lots of friends who want to help them out? Well the last one is definitely not me, unfortunately, so I will have to rely on 1 and 2. And now, of course, I will get all insecure and worry that the reason no-one is talking about them is that they don't like them and are just too polite to tell me ;) And the people who are telling me they are great in private emails are just saying that. I do have one lovely public affirmation from a hunter, I will have to console myself with that for a while.

Take care and keep hunting everyone, they really are great prizes and you won't have any competition from me!