You’ve heard of the term work-life balance right? What if we told you that there’s no such thing.
You probably think that there is no way you can manage a business, work your day job and find quality time to spend with your family. That is without fitting the word balance in there somewhere.
Well here’s a glimpse into our daily lives, to encourage all those families wanting to start up their own business to just go for it!
What would an average day in your lives consist of?
If we’re all home together on the weekend then I (Christine) will generally wake up with the kids, then Hazel, our daughter will run down the hallway and wake Sam up, sometimes with a musical instrument! She’s so proud of herself when she does that. We’ll normally do a quick tidy up of the house, do groceries and have a family day. We love to do craft or cooking together. Hazel loves to bake! There's time every day for lots of playing and fun and preparation for the next days activities like bush school.
What is your favourite part about being parents?
Does watching your kids use your own words against you count?
Now that Hazel’s getting older, I like watching her do things that I wouldn't be brave enough to do. I love seeing her do her gymnastics and overcome obstacles that she might have been a bit worried about. And I love to watch Jarvis learn and explore new things everyday.
How do you find the time to run your own business with two young children?
We both have strengths that we bring to the table and we meet halfway to find time to do little things for the business each day, but we always put our family first.
What is the hardest part about raising children?
As a parent there can be a lot of external expectations put on you that you feel you have to live up to. You’re never going to get it 100% right all the time, but you just have to feel confident in your decisions and not measure yourself against other people’s standards.
How do you balance responsibilities around the house?
I think we have a good delineation of tasks. We work with time frames. Every morning I (Sam) will wash the cloth nappies and then Christine with hang them up. We balance the responsibilities based off what time we have. It doesn't matter what the job is it just comes down to time constraints, so lots of the time Christine might start a job and then need to help the kids so I'll finish it off.
What does work-life balance mean for you?
We don’t believe in work-life balance anymore. We’ve come to discover that when you’re at home you still need to do stuff for work and vice versa. For us it’s important to have fun no matter what we are doing. As long as it’s fulfilling it’s all just part of your daily life. We both feel the same way about this so it makes it easier and more enjoyable to work on necessary tasks, even on the weekend amongst family time.
What is your best piece of advice for other parents wanting to start their own business?
Make sure it is something you can involve your partner in. You both have to be invested in it and as long as you're both serving the best outcome for the customer and the company then it’s definitely doable.