Why Mom Bloggers Don’t Sleep…

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of ZzzQuil for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine…

“The phrase “working mother” is redundant.” – Jane Sellman... This is one of my favorite quotes. {If you look up in the sidebar at my About Me box, you’ll see that I use this quote to kick off that section.} I love it because it’s such a truth when it comes to motherhood – I don’t care if you work from home, work outside the home, or “just” stay home with the kids – we’re all the CEOs of running our homes. We work, all day. And while not all of us are paid for our work, our work still has crazy-high amounts of value. We’re raising our kids to be amazing people as they grow up; teaching life skills, helping them explore the world around them and make sense of it all, imparting our family’s values, helping with homework, listening, cuddling, comforting. Not to downplay the role of daddies – {I am BLESSED beyond belief that Abby has the most amazing dad in the world. And a good dad as your partner makes the job of being a mom so much easier} – but I do have to say that moms kind of rock.

Becoming a Work from Home Bloggy Momma

One day, a couple of years ago, I found myself at 30 – the brand new mom of a newborn baby that I had no clue how to care for, a full time online college schedule, and no job, in the worst economy in years. My employer shocked me by laying me off while I was still on paid maternity leave. Um, total panic is an understatement. But, I quickly recovered from my shock, and started to work on a plan. I knew I wanted to be able to work from home, I needed the flexibility to be there for Abby and do my college course work, but I needed something to bring in enough income to cover all of our bills. So I decided to jump into the ol’ world wide web, and start making money online. Two years later here I am – supporting my family as a blogger, freelance writer, consultant, and random online ninja. Happy ending, right?

Well, not quite. Blogging is hard. Really hard.

Talk to any mom blogger that you know – in real life, or one that you read and love. Ask her to tell you about how totaly fun, glamorous, and super easy her life is. She gets to stay home all day, write some little stories on the internet, go on cool trips, and try cool free stuff. Must be like, so totally awesome. That’s what I hear all.of.the.time from friends and family. Like they think I’m just at home in my pajamas playing Farmville all day long or something. {Just for the record: I have never, and will never, play Farmville.} But that’s so far from the truth, sadly. Here’s a little look at what it’s like life the glam mom blogger life:

• 6am: Alarm goes off. I should get up. I don’t. I only went to bed a few hours ago after being distracted by Pinterest for 3 hours. On the plus side – I now have a new board filled with ideas on how to redo my kitchen if I ever win a million dollars.
• 7am: After pushing the snooze button on my phone 127 times, I finally wake up. I’m not ready to pull myself out of my actual bed yet, so I start work by sorting emails on my phone. I can only open one eye for about the first 10 minutes. Blurry eyed, I sort, delete, and respond to important messages for about an hour.
• 8am: I’m out of bed. In my bathrobe. Coffee is brewing, and I incoherantly start checking all of my social media accounts to get caught up on the world.
• 9am: Coffee has been consumed. I may or may not be wearing pants at this point. But it’s time to finally start working. Log in to WordPress, and grab my blogging binder. And more coffee.
• 10am-5pm: A random assortment of activities. Things like, Where in the freaking heck is that pen I JUST sat down? Why is there a family of plastic dinosaurs marching across my keyboard while I try to type? Who put peanut butter in my lens cap? Productive things like that. I also do photo shoots – for review products, to get good graphics for posts, or go into town to get pics for my local Examiner posts. Sometimes I eat lunch too. Sometimes I just chug coffee and eat a leftover chicken nugget from Abby’s plate….
• 5pm-9pm: We do dinner. I spend some time playing with Abby – we have dance parties while we put away laundry, make a game out of picking up the 3,048 toys in the living room, and play a game or two in the backyard, and get in a little snuggle time before Abby goes to sleep.
• 9am-who knows when: I finish all of the blog posts I started all day. I catch up on social media – {there’s always ONE more tweet I should send, ONE more Facebook update to make, ONE more thing to pin…} And oh man – God forbid you come across an article and see that someone on the internet is WRONG! There goes half of your night as you try to right the injustice with comments and tweets. Then I crawl into bed, check emails again from my phone, and attempt to go to sleep.

You’d think that after a day full of craziness and chaos, that I’d pass right out and go to sleep at night, right? But no. My brain is often on overdrive, and I just cannot go to sleep, no matter how hard I try. Should I check into “My Bed: Home Sweet Home” on FourSquare? Should I Instagram a photo of the imaginary sheep I’m counting? {I once dreamt of attending a real life Twitter party, where all of my favorite bloggers were there in ball gowns. I need a vacation.}

Help when you can’t sleep

Whether you’re a mom blogger, a corporate momma, a stay at home momma, a mom in school, or a mom of teens – stress comes with the job. So, on the nights when you just can’t get to sleep – I have a smart solution for you: ZzzQuil. We all know how well NyQuil can get you to sleep. But you don’t want to use that when you’re not sick, since you dont’ need all of those extra medicine ingredients. So, they created ZzzQuil – the same “help-you-get-to-sleep” goodness without the meds. You can get it in pill or syrup form, and it’s a perfect fix for those occassional nights you need some extra help!

Your Pillow is Calling

If you suffer from sleepless nights sometimes too – check out ZzzQuil. It helps you get to sleep quicker, sleep deeper, stay asleep longer, and wake up in the morning refreshed and ready to rock your day! Let’s chat: Do you have trouble falling asleep sometimes too? What do you do to fix it – and does it work? Share some thoughts, advice, and tips in the comments below.

And – if you try out ZzzQuil too, be sure to let the brand know what you think! Tweet them your thoughts using the hashtag #ZzzQuilNight – or post a photo to Instagram with the hashtag, showing off the product, or share a shot of you finally feeling more like a morning person :) You can like them on Facebook too, and let them know what you think, or ask any questions you have. They love hearing from you guys!

{Photo credit, first photo: Éole via photopin cc.}