Being an Artist and Stay-at-Home Mom
On Mother’s Day I thought this might be a fun blog post to write so here goes! Of course it’s changed throughout my first two years as a mother depending on the developmental stage my son (“B”) was at, but I’m going to write about what my life is currently like as a full time stay-at-home mother and a professional artist.
Who doesn’t love a schedule, so let’s start with that.
7:00 wake up, breakfast, B plays while I do chores I was too tired to do last night!
9:00-11:00 twice a week I have a babysitter come play with B while I paint for 2 hours, other days we will go on an outing like to the playground/library/grandparents’ */grocery store (lol)
*On the days we go to my parents’ we actually stay all day and he naps there. I have an easel there too and can paint or do work on my laptop while they play with him and also while he naps!
12:00 lunch for us both
1ish start his nap process
2-4 Nap for B- I can usually paint again for at least an hour here, might take a little break if I need it in the first hour!
4-6 usually play at home and eat dinner together
6:30-7:30 hang out together/ do dinner clean up/ ask husband to hang out with B if I need an extra hour to paint for a deadline!
7:30 bed time for B (and the process takes like an hour don’t get me wrong!)
And during the holidays I will paint after bedtime too to get all the custom work done on time!
So in this stage of life that equals at MOST 5ish hours of painting in a day, and on days with no sitter, only 2. One thing I struggle with the most right now is non-urgent communication. I will say that at least my brain categorizes customer emails as urgent, so that’s good haha! But anything extra that is for my general business communication and is not urgent, takes me days or weeks to get to. But it’s ok! I know this precious phase of life will pass and I can block in an hour each day for admin in the future, but right now in order to keep producing art my kid-free time goes to being at the easel!
And drumroll, we are expecting baby boy #2 at the end of the summer, so this will all change again in a few months! In order to prepare, I have pared down my expectations for myself, choosing not to submit to any shows, additional galleries, or even release work on my own site this year or next. I am only aiming to create work to meet the submission minimum for who I already work with, and to pour myself into those pieces fully and maintain those cherished relationships! I have also painted a few extras as I work on 2024’s collections, knowing I won’t be able to create as much in 2025 and saving some of these finished (and secret) pieces to launch with next year’s new collections.
Before becoming a mother my business was growing each year. As a former children’s art teacher with 10 years of experience in early childhood education (which is beautiful and wonderful!) I came to the decision that if I became a mother, I wanted to be home with my children when they were tiny. I am extremely grateful that it works out for me to do that, and am confident that I can keep my business going at a steady pace for these few years until I have more time to devote to it again. I LOVE being home with my son, and I also get butterflies thinking that one day he will be in school and I will again be available to paint all day. Can you imagine!? (But also wait no, I’m going to miss him!)
If this interested you and you have any questions, please reach out via email or IG DM!