Do you.... feel sorry for yourself and expect other people to rescue you?
Or
Do you stand up for what you want, what you believe in and what you know you deserve??
My family have been through a tough year and a half, from only one parent working, my other half Phil, myself having to look after our 3 Children and be a stay at home mum, to Phil being made redundant, getting into contracting then loosing his job really close to Christmas. We only had enough for Food and Petrol to get to and from school until our application had gone through the benefit system.
I felt like a bad mum because I could not be able to afford Christmas Presents as the only money I had was to pay for food and petrol. I remember breaking down in tears in front of my mum and admitting buying Christmas Presents was not possible. My mum was amazing and did buy them for us. But deep deep inside if you cannot provide for your Children you feel a failure. I couldn't have crashed my Children world of Santa wonderland, its so magical for them but for us, it was a nightmare.
It was also an awful experience to loose our Car which was on finance. Having Cars on finance was the norm to us,we had both had cars for 5 years and not missed a payment. Missing 2 payments and we received a letter saying the car was being taken away. Having to have some stranger come to our house ask us questions, give him the paperwork and Keys and having to take our Children's carseats out and let it go. I had to be so strong, try not to cry, try not to feel like it was my fault, our fault. I had to listen to my eldest Child asking when we would have our blue car back. we had to be positive and think we have learned our lesson not to borrow money.
It was a hard time when we couldn't rent, when we were not entitled to help as the application hadn't gone through. It was also tough when I had to pay the rent from a cheque my Grandma had given me. It wasn't given to me for a months rent, it was intended to help get things we needed. But we were in a time of need and it was the only option we had. Infact it saved us from loosing our house as we had received a letter saying they wanted us out!
So this was a snippet of that time, but this time of struggle made us come to a decision that even working in employment to just pay the bills was not our reality. It was not the reality we deserved.
So we made the decision, the decision to change our lives into a new reality. Where we didn't worry about finances, paying Bills, the fact our Children could go swimming classes, Gymnastics, Football whatever my little people were excited about. We decided we deserved to be able to go on date nights because we could afford a babysitter, we knew we deserved to go on holidays, to take the Children Disney to see their little faces in amazement. A life that we once dreamed about.
I know how hard it is to be a stay at home, having to look after Children is a demanding 'job' but when you are struggling financially, this is not right. I want to inspire Mums especially that they can still be a Stay at home Mum, that they can afford a babysitter so they can go out for a massage, go the gym, whatever they want to do that relaxes them. Each Mum needs a bit of time out, to think and appreciate what we have.
I want to show Mums that they can run an amazing business from home around their Children working only a few hours a day if they wanted too. I want People to realise that they have to change their reality as no one else can do that for you. You have got to make the decision to begin!
A Mum Can be a stay at home Mum and Run a successful Business, you just have to believe it, yes it may be hard at time but the result makes the journey so worth it.
I intend to Empower & Inspire Women to Dream Big and Find their Inner Sparkle.
Love Victoria x
