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I’ve had 4 hectic days, and the new batch of projects is just beginning. I have this transcription project that I’m doing for a Canadian university, and the Lakbay-Aral to Olongapo which is drawing near. Plus some other odds-and-ends job that a VA does. And the housechores! I can’t neglect the housechores and the kids, however tight the deadlines are.
VA… Sounds pretty glamorous, huh? But I tell you this, the glamour stops with the name. Well, at least as far as I’m concerned.
Picture this. The professional WAHM, called a VA, wakes up at 4:30 am, prepares breakfast for her school-age kids. The older kid, who leaves the house at 6:30, must be up at 5:00. While she’s having breakfast, the sexy WAHM checks her mail. But before that, rice must be cooking already, and the water for the girl’s bath must be heating, too. The WAHM then bathes the girl at 5:45, starts to dry her hair at 6:00, must be dressed by 6:15, because the service picks her up at 6:30. Hmmm… what’s missing? The lunch! Lunch is prepared sometime between 6:00 and 6:30.
As soon as the girl has left, she wakes up the second girl and feeds her breakfast, too. By 6:50, she must be bathing, hair dry and in a ponytail by 7:15, and must be dressed by 7:30. The service picks her up at 7:45.
Next is the little boy. He eats breakfast while Mommy is having coffee and Daddy reads the news. Then it’s his turn to be bathed. The boy, not the Dad, okay? When he’s fresh and clean again, he keeps Mommy company while doing the laundry. While the machine turns, the WAHM sweeps the frontyard. When the laundry is done, it’s time to download audio from the server. While downloading, the WAHM picks up scattered toys, sweeping the floor from the bedrooms to the living room to the dining room and finally the kitchen. Then goes back to where she started with a wet rag and mops the floor, going through the same route.
Okay, that was really exhausting, right? So she deserves to sit down for a while. She sits in front of her PC and checks if the download is going fine. Replies to some mail, manage the e-groups she’a moderating, put in some time in VA work until it’s time to cook lunch.
Uh, she has not washed the dishes from breakfast. Those are washed while preparing lunch, see. And the little boy falls asleep some time between the laundry and the dishes. Then the kindergartner gets home from school and lunch is served.
After lunch, that’s when the real VA work begins. Check the planner, tick off items already done, update calendars, read some more mail, reply when there’s a need, you get the picture. There’s a break at 2:30, when the grader gets home from school and it’s time to do some homework. By 3:30, it’s back to work. Hopefully, all three kids would go to sleep. If not, well… tough luck!
There’s another break for dinner. When an audio is on the bad side, it’s best to take a nap while the kids are awake and get to work when they’re in bed, so that it won’t be quite a contest between the bad audio and their shrieks. So it’s nap time at 7:00 until 8:30, tops. Then it’s back to the grind until the work is done. Good days end at 2:00am, better days end at 12:00mn.
You think you’re up to being a WAHM?
Better question is… will you be happy being a WAHM? I know I am.
