“Momtrepreneur” is a fairly new word, barely around for a decade. It describes women — moms, obviously — who run their own businesses, usually out of their homes. Momtrepreneurs almost always carry the responsibility of childcare along with — besides — on top of — and yes, totally intertwined with — their businesses.
~ Medium.com // Marielle Henault
I’ve been a “Momtrepreneur” (aka, Mompreneur) for several years now. It’s an endearing label... Growing up in the age where mushing words together was a novel concept (remember when we thought “Brangelina” was genius?), I thought the mash up is a pretty good explanation of the phenomenon. I give it a thumbs up because above all, I really like and live the concept. I’m a freelance designer with fairly consistent gigs and I am running my own small e-commerce business all while managing the household, three little kids and a husband. Sure, my kids are bigger and all in school now, nevertheless, I did go through the hazing of working around nap times and bouncing a baby on my lap while trying to work on a design concept or
get my business started. I know that some people take issue with the word “momtrepreneur”and yes, I can easily say entrepreneur or small business owner, but there is something about the “mom” in the word that makes us wear this title with pride. Not only am I "doing my own thing", but I’m doing it while maintaining my own version of work life balance and for me, this means being available and present for my young family. Of course, there are moms that work full time or have super stressful jobs and I totally bow to these awesome women …. I don’t know how you work full time and still be the cool mom that sashays in with a homemade pie for the bake sale. However, there is just something about a momtrepreneuer that implies ingenuity and gumption in order to create your own business from scratch and often with kids screaming in our ears.
This type of entrepreneurship is a marathon, we are not going to sprint to success overnight or even over a couple of years, often we have so much other stuff to contend with at the same time and we likely don’t have the capacity to spend full time in our endeavors. A good way to look at it is that you are growing your human and business babies at the same time and by the time your kids are older and a bit more independent, then that is when the business that you have been nursing this whole time really pays off. I often wonder if it would be easier to go back to work in an office with regular work hours, but I’ve done that before and I’ve also cried at the daycare director’s office because I was so late picking up my daughter ( like, this two year old was the last kid at school ); I couldn’t handle the working mom guilt and nearly had a breakdown. I knew that I needed to be more in control of my own schedule and my life. I really value my freedom and flexibility and this great feeling of being my own boss. I see momtrepreneurship as a tribe of women that are multi-taskers and doers that are busier than you will ever know ( they are the magic fairies that make clean clothes and your favorite foods appear out of mid-air … POOF ) but still say F-It!, I’m going to go for it because not only do I have to do it, I need to do it ( for my soul, for my identity).
As a designer, we often value the idea of creating something from nothing and leave a mark in this world. I simply want to see a beautiful interior come to life, make a bag that women love and with that my own small business. There is hustle in the game, there are ups and downs, there is a pace. I never want to have any regrets in life so I would always rather just go for it and if, or rather when, I come across bumps along the way than so be it. My parents came to the US as immigrants and they worked together to build a successful business and now that they are retired, they can look back proudly at all of their achievements. I want to have that type of pride too. Maybe it’s me being overly independent, naively confident, a feminist, a list crosser-offer or simply just a designer that wants to find a way to share my vision with the world. Bottomline, no matter what the motivation, I’m totally about supporting women and particularly other moms. Let’s do this Ladies.
Source of awesome image : Etsy
This post is dedicated to the Notorious R.B.G … the icon, the trailblazer, the rebel and mother. Thank you.