By Kayla Paradis 
It all starts with a heart-wrenching feeling when you think about leaving your kids to work away from home. You wonder how so many women do it, and how it just seems normal in our everyday society. Yet for you, it feels like torture to imagine having someone else care for and spend more time with your child than you do.
So, you decide to get creative, get innovative. You know you have what it takes to create a life where you can make an income from home—laptop out and messy bun in with the kids running around you. This is the answer to your prayers, and you know you were born into this era of technology for a reason. Yes, you can do this.
Then, you start to dream about how wonderful it would feel to be able to contribute to the family and the household in a way that would ease stress for your husband, make your mother proud, and your children wouldn’t even have to miss you because you would never have to be gone.
So, you start building and creating your work from home business.
You pour your heart and soul into it, you put your name and face out there, you step outside of your comfort zone. This will all be so worth it. You face all your entrepreneurial challenges alone, bravely and without skipping a beat.
RELATED: Dear Work-From-Home Mom, I See You
The truth is nothing in life comes without challenges—even when you think you’ve got all your bases covered, the mom guilt is real. It might start small when your child wants you to play while you’re writing your latest blog post, a gentle shrug. Then it amplifies when someone you trusted tells you that you don’t have to always be your brand, an ego jab. Nothing can prepare you for the heart stab when your partner starts to feel afraid or threatened by your building success and the new you. Isn’t this what he wanted? Isn’t this the answer to both your dreams?
You thought you were doing it right, balancing it all—being this century’s super mom without batting an eye.
Pursuing your dreams, changing diapers, meeting deadlines, supporting your man, bringing in more income than you would have from working a day job, putting yourself out there, stretching your limits. Yet these moments keep coming, where you are tested and want to throw in the towel. Would it be easier to just give it up?
It’s in these moments you must look yourself in the mirror and see just how far you have come. These challenging moments are only the moments when you recognize yourself as a true pioneer. We have never done this before—women have never had this much independence and ability. You are paving the way for you, your daughter, and so many more women out there. You are a creator of opportunity and even though you will be tested every step of the way to see if you really have what it takes, I’m here to tell you that you do.
RELATED: When Mom Works From Home, Life is a Triangle
Your expansion will help others to grow, to see things in a new way. You have stood up and said no to the normal way of doing things and decided to take the road less traveled in motherhood. That means you will come across broken branches, holes in the road, and trolls along the way.
You can do this. You were born for this, and there is no room for giving up or backing down.
No one will understand all the challenges you have faced on your journey, but it’s your mission to show them the flag on top of the mountain, not every rock along the way. You need to show them the flag so they can know it’s possible. It’s possible for you, for me, and for any mother who is ready to pave the way with her heart on her sleeve.
I know you have it in you because I have it in me, too. We all do. It’s the grit that lands the podcast pitch, the conviction to service that lands the sale, the feeling when you delivered that workshop you know changed someone’s take on life.
You are a work-from-home mother pioneer.
Anytime you are tested and shaken, I want you to pick yourself up and realize this whole thing is so much bigger than you. You must keep going because there’s no turning back, you’ll get lost in the maze. Keep going and show other’s the way. Show them it’s possible and that you’re one of the ones who has what it takes. Every mother has the fight of the lion and that is what you need on the entrepreneurial journey.
RELATED: To the Moms Who Work and Stay Home
So, dig deep within and show people your true heart. We aren’t meant to stay in the kitchen or behind the desk anymore. You’re creating freedom for every woman who knows there is more out there and thinks she doesn’t have the means to make it happen. Show her she can, even if it means breaking the mold and making people uncomfortable. Just bring your light and your heart to all things you do and let people see it without being afraid of what they might think or say. Because what would happen if you didn’t?
by Tara Hanratty 
by Jessica Carik 
by Brittany Moore 
by Angela Williams Glenn 
by Krystal Sieben 
by Jaime Crowe 
by Chelsea Drown 
by Kaitlin Mantovi 
