I have been a mother for 14 years (well, if you count my time being pregnant too!) and I have found, over those years that whilst most things about having children and their childhood years are wonderful, there are two dreadful stages of motherhood that nothing at all can prepare you for.

The First Horrible Stage is the realisation that you actually want to be a stay at home mother and that you need to find a way to earn some money.

When I had Verity, my eldest daughter, I was completely convinced that I would hand the baby to the nearest midwife, pick up my briefcase and return to my beloved career.  I thought that the biggest change in my life would be over onc e I was no longer pregnant and that from now on, my biggest problem would be managing daycare.  Boy, oh boy was I in for a shock!  I couldn’t believe how much my life changed with my daughter’s birth.  This once totally career focused woman was suddenly totally smitten with a 6lb 12 oz bundle of noise and I was not remotely interested in returning to work.

However, finances became very tight and I found that when Verity was five and a half months old, I was going to have to return to work. So, I cried!  And cried and cried.  You might be interested to know that I very rarely cry…  I did return to work, albeit briefly and I was so very unhappy that my husband and I sat down and reprioritised our lives  and I left work.  I never returned.  I haven’t worked, other than from home, since.

The Second Horrible Stage, which if you are lucky you will never experience, is the divorce stage.  I found myself divorced, absolutely penniless and needing to earn some money to keep body, soul and now two daughters together.

This is one of those things that we all firmly believe will happen to someone else, but unfortunately, it all too often happens to us.  My husband of nearly 15 years and I separated in a particularly awful situation and I returned to the UK with my daughters (we were living in Africa).  We went from a reasonably well off family, to penniless overnight and I had to earn some money quickly.  The beauty of working from home is that you can monetise fairly quickly when you have to and even do it without any outlay at all, if that is what is required.

So, I’m a veteran of both of these horrible stages and although almost all of us will go through the first I hope that you can avoid the second.  However, whichever of these stages you have experienced, I can help with the “earning from home” part.  I have resources, ideas, lists of unusual companies and tips about how to achieve your goals – all of which are designed with one thing in mind; helping mothers who want to earn from home to do just that.

I am so grateful that I have had the life experiences that I have had, because although they may have been appalling at the time, they have given me the insight and wherewithall to be able to help and support women in a similar situation.