Today I’ve been writing a blog entry for Business on Twitter, Nikki Pilkington’s business blog. I write a post a month and it takes about an hour of work, which I decided to do this Sunday as it requires some thinking time. Blogging is time-consuming and can be exciting or dull depending on your state of mind. As well as blogging for Business on Twitter, I blog over at Mimimyne. Sometimes I love to write about my products and news at Mimimyne, sometimes I’m more interested in writing about social media, sometimes it will be an event I’ve attended which excites me and which I want to share. Sometimes I will have guest posts, usually from bloggers who are relevant to my readers. It’s important to blog regularly if you run a business! Anyway, today I was writing about Twitter and staring at the computer with what I remember calling ‘the writer stare’ when I interrupted my mother working and gazing into mid-air (although of course she used a typewriter).
While I was doing this, my six year old son kept running in and out. First of all he wanted the sellotape, which disappears regularly – I probably have twenty rolls of it in my house somewhere. Then he wanted scissors. Next, it was a black pen, then a piece of paper. After a while I asked him if he’d mind going out because Mummy was working and I couldn’t concentrate (I’d better explain here that his dad, brother and two dogs were also in the house, so I wasn’t being completely neglectful!). As a bribe, I said I’d feature whatever he was working on in my blog.
After an hour or so during which I carried on with my writing, and he carried on interrupting me, I’d produced my blog and he’d produced – this. It’s so wonderful! It’s his personal sticker book with various characters he’s invented. Sometimes I feel guilty that the kids have to share some of my attention and time with my business. But then I see what they can create, all by themselves with hardly any help from me, and realise it’s OK. By running my own business and working part-time, I’m not actually shortchanging them. They know I’ll be there to pick them up from school and that I will spend most of my time with them, and they’ve learned a million ways to entertain themselves if my attention is elsewhere for a short while. So I’m going to give myself a little holiday from that omnipresent mother guilt, and just feel proud of my talented son.