Seriously Dog

"Salary.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLRY) announced today the results of its annual Mom Salary Survey. For 2010, Salary.com determined that the time mothers spend performing the 10 most popular "mom job functions" would equate to an annual cash compensation of US$117,856 for a Stay-at-Home Mom. Working Moms would earn US$71,860 above their regular salary for their mom duties"

---Taken from MSN



"According to the Salary.com survey, the working mom puts in more than 96 hours a week when you combine her full-time job, mom hours, and mom overtime -- an increase of four hours from last year. This year's survey shows that mom is spending more time preparing meals, making sure the home stays in good repair, and shuttling the family to activities. Moms continue to work longer hours, because they outsource less and handle increasingly more of the workload themselves. Overtime remains a primary driver of mom's six-figure salary. This year, the stay-at-home mom's overtime averaged 59 hours in a 99-hour "work week."

--- Taken from salary.com





No wonder we are all exhausted!! A working mom is putting in 96 hours of work between her full time job and here mom job (which includes 56 hours of overtime). The SAHM mom is putting in 99 hours per week which boils down to 59 hours of overtime! Wouldn't it be nice if we were able to actually collect that salary (even part of it would be nice)? The salary is based on the top 10 functions of a mom which includes: laundry machine operator, janitor, van driver, computer operator, housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, chief executive officer, psychologist, and facilities manager.



The sad thing is that these salaries are down from last year (down 4% for SAHM and down 6% for working moms) because of the economy but the number of hours worked is up because moms are doing more themselves and outsourcing less (again because of the economy).  To be able to take some of the burden off your work life or to take some of the earning burden off your husband would be great. Bottom line - wouldn't it be nice to get some recognition for the job that all moms do in raising our children and sending them out in the world to be productive members of society?



I'm just saying......

Over the years I have struggled with organization tools. It is a joke in the house that every month I am overcome by the unrelenting desire to buy either a new planner (written or electronic) or a new phone (cordless or mobile).   My collection includes:

• Day Runners in Multiple formats - Day at a Glance, Month at a Glance, Day at a Glance with a Month at a Glance page, and Week at a Glance
• A series of 3 different Franklin Covey Binders all of different sizes (tiny, medium and mammoth) and all different materials (Pleather, leather and fabric).
• Microsoft Outlook plus a written calendar (which is tedious and for some reasons the calendars never had the same info so I was always double booking things).
• A Palm - a plain old digital organizer - no phone, no email or text (which I don't think even existed at the time).  The entire family got them for Christmas that year and we sat around all Christmas day entering contacts and then trying to beam them to each other. 
• A Treo phone - great for organizing and would sync with Outlook but the phone sucked and email was very temperamental
• A Blackberry - which I love
• And finally, the mom organizer which is really cool and pretty and has lots of great pre-made list pages to use but is bulky and is used in conjunction with my Blackberry so it kind of defeats the purpose of being efficiently organized.

There is a planner graveyard in my house (more commonly known as underneath the guest bedroom bed) and this is where all of my old relics lie. My biggest challenge is that I need my system to be non-bulky and portable because, while I am a working mom, most of what I need relates to my kids and running the household.




At any given time my items will be housed in a purse that is stuffed full of necessary items like: wallet, keys, phone, pen, paper, crayons, obliterated goldfish in a sandwich bag, a spare pair of kid's underwear (sometimes I do worry that if people see it they will think I am a pedophile but that is a story for another time), matchbox cars, Nintendo DS with games, stuffed animals, and some chapstick.




After much discussion with my neighbor, who is also facing this problem, we have decided that we both NEED IPhones and IPads. Our husbands beg to differ and say that we really WANT these items so my argument is that yes we do WANT these items because we NEED to get out lives in order.




We search daily to see if there is an update on the rumor that Verizon is getting the IPhone in June - please please please please Verizon we NEED the IPhone. We have determined that we would do just fine with the WiFi IPad and don't need the 3G one (that will save you some money Dear). These 2 items would satisfy my strange desire to purchase organizers and phones all in one fail swoop and would make my life complete -- until the next new cool tool comes along

Working at home and owning my own business is a wonderful bonus that I have right now in life.  My husband is able to support us so I am able to stay home with the kids.  My work is for me (to keep me sane) but is also something that I am building for when both my kids are in school.  My oldest is in second grade now.  We send him to private school (don't get me started on our public schools here).  My youngest has one more year of pre-school and then it is off to school for him as well.  There lies my anxiety!!  I love working at home (and for myself) so I can pick up the kids from school, let them have play dates, allow them to participate in activities, help with homework, etc.  To be honest though - the pay isn't always great.  If you don't have paying clients you don't get paid!!!!  That's fine - I know the business is growing and we are hoping it will become something great someday - hope doesn't pay for 2 private school tuitions though. 

How great is it that I can get some work done and still have fresh laundry at the end of the day.  I love being able to come and go as I please and do work on my time when I decide it is time.  Like today - I was photographing some new products for the web.  Here is what I have done for work today---



And look who showed up while I was working...


I hope that I can continue to work here and be able to build up the ability to pay for the extras and for the boy's school.  Whether it be for my business now or a new opportunity I hope that I will continue to have the freedom that working at home allows for.  I am working hard at it - hope it all pays off.

I also wish I could be as good a writer and/or blogger as some of the people I follow.  I am not totally into all this so I don't follow many people but here are 2 of the blogs that have kept me laughing and following.  I aspire to be at their level...

Jennsylvania

Snide Bride