This pandemic has been hard on parents. Insert understatement emoji/punctuation/fist bump.

If you are a parent, you probably don’t hear this enough, so let me remind you: YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB.

Full stop.

For the last 18 months, I’ve been churning out lots of content on how to stay organized, how to set up your home office, and how to use SORT and Succeed to improve your home one area at a time. If you’re pregnant, you already or will soon hit a nesting phase that will make the decluttering, organizing and decorating feel like your life depends on it. This phase can range from a day to months. This is totally normal.

For those of us who are parents while running our own business, again let me say: YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB.

The Pandemic, Pregnant Entrepreneurs, and Parents

Running a business is HARD on a normal day. Running your own business while pregnant during a pandemic? For the past year and a half, we’ve had to add this new calculus on top of every decision: what about COVID? Can I meet with clients in person? How can I offer my services differently? How do I keep myself, my employees, my clients, and my family safe? Am I blowing everything out of proportion? Am I taking things too far, either doing too much or not enough about it? Am I missing opportunities? When will this be over?

Parenting is also HARD. They say it’s worth it, but I’ve gotta be honest, there are days it just doesn’t feel like it. When I leave my office where I’m in charge of so many things, I have to them go home (a very short commute these days), and be in charge of everything else. What can we do safely? How do I protect kids in my family who can’t yet get the vaccine? Am I being too cautions? Not cautious enough? How do I protect everyone without freaking them out? What about when my husband and I don’t agree? How do I stay informed without going on news overload? What decisions today will matter in five or ten years?

This pandemic and parenting won’t end on a certain date.

It’s been compared to a dimmer switch rather than a toggle switch: public health conditions in many areas have been gradually getting better since the introduction of the vaccine. But the coronavirus virus will continue to circulate, just like the Flu circulated before all of this happened going back to 1917.

On the other hand, the risk due to coronavirus will diminish over time. I mean, the bubonic plague exists in the world, but most of us don’t spend time calculating how that affects us on a daily basis. We’ll get there with this, too.

My kids are a bit older now, in their teens. While they can get dressed on their own (with questionable success some days, lol) and they can make dinner on their own (again, what qualifies as a meal is sometimes murky), every day they become a little more independent. I just keep modeling and sometimes actively teaching them what’s going to help them stay alive and successful. Even when they oppose our parenting, I know that the important stuff will mostly stick.

Until then, you can do what I’ve been doing, if it helps.

Organized people can handle crisis better.

When you’ve got things mostly under control to start with and have a good support system of people around you, things are easier. That doesn’t mean you won’t have challenges. You will, and you have this past year.

My hope for you is that you take your experiences during the early part of this pandemic and use them as an excuse to:

1. Save more money, personally and in your business. A nest egg makes everything easier.
2. Take better care of yourself. If you are pregnant right now, maybe that’s happening naturally. You’ll be tested, very soon. Ask for help when you need it. Hire help when you must. Accept help when it’s offered.
3. Build the business that aligns with your values. Your ideal clients need what you are offering. Stay true to your values. Tell your story, and your clients will be drawn to you.
4. Be the parent. Our kids may not like the house rules and the state of the world. That’s ok. The parent job description kind of stinks sometimes, especially when keeping our kids safe means saying no, but it’s also fun and sometimes even awesome.

If you’ve lost a friend, a family member, a job, or anything else this last eighteen months, my heart goes out to you. Pregnancy is humanity’s proof that we are optimists at our core. Running a business while pregnant is optimism squared.

You can do this.

Don’t forget to be awesome.

YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB!