Parents of Special Needs Children

I was a licensed nurse and had the map of my life routed out to specifics. I had a plan in mind that included goals, dreams, anticipations and expectations. No one knows how quickly those things change unless you have had the pleasure of experiencing the role of being a special parent. Like many special parents out there, I was struggling, looking, and wondering how I could continue to meet the demands of my career, all while caring for my child with special needs. While being a special parent is the most important role in your life, you also have to somehow manage a career and financial support. Your role is multipurpose and you want to be there for your child, but your career demands a huge percentage of your time and efforts. How can you be a special parent, cater to your career, provide for your family and maintain your sanity?

If you or someone you know is parenting a special needs child and trying to work outside the home, you know exactly what I am talking about. Sure, you can leave your child with a friend, a parent or other caregiver, but when it comes down to specifics and your child needs you, it’s much easier to stop what you are doing at home than it is to face your employer and deal with their scrutiny. You have to remember, unless you are the parent of a special needs child, this is a situation you just about have to experience in order to understand or comprehend the importance your role plays in that child’s life.

I always thought if anyone could do it, I could. I was a struggling single mom with a good head on my shoulders and a positive attitude. I was perfectly capable of maintaining a demanding career and taking care of my special needs son along with my other 2 children without having to change a thing. I was bound and determined to succeed one way or another without having to inconvenience my career or my everyday life in any shape, form, or fashion.

Guess what? Like many other parents of special needs children, I was wrong. I had to make decisions that I really didn’t want to make. In that process, I had to manage transitions that were mind-blowing and difficult to say the least. I used my own tactics and I compromised, I was literally at the end of my rope and finally, in 1998, I was able to eliminate a great deal of stress that was controlling my life, and began to experience the fulfillment of being a full-time parent to my special needs child and became enabled to work from home to help financially support my family.

During the past few years, I have also helped others become home-based income producing parents and here are some examples of questions people have asked:

• Was this transition easy? No. If you are looking for an easy way out, working from home is most likely is not something for you. If you don’t have the persistence, patience and are not goal-oriented, you can forget it.

• Did you struggle? Yes, in more ways than one.

• How did you finally begin creating an income from home? It wasn’t easy and began with many promising opportunities that turned out to be less than legitimate.

• Did you have skills? Well of course I had skills, I was a licensed nurse, but believe it or not, none of those skills were needed at any of the opportunities I ran across at the time.

To sum it all up, I was like many other parents, struggling in the 9-5 grind, looking for solutions to my situation, solutions that would allow me to earn an income from home, be my own boss and be there for my special son all while being the type of parent I felt he, and my other children deserve. I wanted a package deal, even if it meant changing my focus, rearranging my plans and struggling, I wanted to be there for my special child and my other children and focus on life with them. I wanted to minimize my absence from my family, gain some independence and make this transition as smooth as it could possibly be.

The entire process of going from working outside the home to working at home hasn’t been easy. It’s been a long road full of challenges and barriers. Being the parent of a special needs child has been the major motivating factor for me in my pursuit of working from home. You have to take those challenges and face them head on, move those barriers and leap over them; get down to business. Find something you love to do and turn it in to an income-producing opportunity of your very own.

For more information about Susan Hill and her insight on work from home, drop in and visit her at Break Time Virtual Services.