Want to raise well-adjusted, productive, God-fearing kids? One of the easiest ways to teach your kids incredibly important life lessons that set them up for that kind of success is simply to work in front of them. Check out these 7 Life Lessons Work-at-Home Moms Teach Their Kids!

Let me ask you a quick question, mama: What is your GREATEST motivation? What is the ONE thing that will inspire you to take action?

What is your GREATEST motivation? What is the ONE thing that will inspire you to take action? Share on X

I know for me, internal motivation is NOT one of my great strengths. If I know someone is counting on me, I’m much more likely to do something than if I say I just want to do it for myself.

I will wait until I completely run out of clean clothes before I do the laundry. But, if I know my husband is out of clean work shirts or my daughter is out of clean underwear, I’ll get that laundry done ASAP!

I’m willing to be that your family is your greatest motivator, as well. Even if you don’t want to accomplish that certain task for yourself, you’ll do it because you know it’s for the good of your family.

So, what if I told you that the one thing you’re probably ignoring right now is one thing that could teach your kids some pretty incredible life lessons?

If you’ve been a part of the Scattered Woman Crew for any length of time, you already know what that one thing is. (We talk about it A LOT!)

We moms get so busy running our households, raising our kids, and trying to stay somewhat sane that we often push our careers to the back burner. Sometimes – like when your babies are teeny and need 24/7 care and attention, our careers NEED to be pushed the bottom of the to-do list.

But, we REALLY can’t afford to push it off indefinitely.

And our kids can’t afford it, either.

When our kids see us working on our careers right in front of them – whether through remote work or an at-home business – they easily pick up & internalize life lessons that are much harder for them to learn elsewhere.

What if I told you that the one thing you’re probably ignoring right now is one thing that could teach your kids some pretty incredible life lessons? Share on X

We talked last week about the 3 big reasons why mom careers matter for SAHMs, but this week, we’re focusing on the 7 life lessons work-at-home moms teach their kids – simply by working at home, right in front of them!

The following list of life lessons we teach our kids through our at-home work was originally published as a guest post on the Making Mommas website, which has unfortunately since shut down. However, that means we get to publish the complete article here! Enjoy!

Every mom I know wants to raise kids who become well-adjusted, successful members of society. So, how do we do that?? I propose that one way we can train our kids up in the way they should go, is to keep one eye on our mom careers.

Say what now??

I talk with moms all the time about the importance of investing in their careers – even while they’re raising babies at home! I’ve laid out the 3 big reasons why mom careers matter for SAHMs, but for many moms, unless they see something as important for their kids, it will never become a priority for them.

So, I’m here today to help you see exactly how valuable your mom career can be for your KIDS! Let’s take a quick look at 7 life lessons work-at-home moms teach their kids simply by working at home, right in front of them!

(As a former college Resident Director and Career Counselor, I’m BIG on life lessons! You can read more in the 10 Life Lessons You Need to Teach Your Kids Before College!)

7 Life Lessons Work-at-Home Moms Teach Their Kids

Life Lesson #1: Master time management.

When you work from home, your kids get a front-row seat to watch how you manage your time to get everything done. Productivity and time management aren’t skills that are reserved for a work environment that’s out of their line of sight and has nothing to do with them. Your productivity & time management impact nearly every facet of their days!

When I was first getting started with my online business, I shared about how I used Mini-Me’s enthusiasm and energy to power my work days by helping her create her own visual schedule for our days. (You can also check out the LIVE video tip here.) Even as a 3-year-old, my daughter was learning to tackle her to-do list and accomplish her “work” before taking a break or running off to play.

Sabina Nawaz, a global CEO coach, keynote speaker, and writer shared some other time management lessons she’s been able to share with her son in an article for the Harvard Business Review:

“Starting when he was eight years old, my older son would sit down with me once a quarter and help me block out white-space time for the next quarter… By helping me, my son appreciates the variety of my job responsibilities, not just what he sees from videos of my keynote talks. He’s also learned how to plan ahead to create balance and dedicate time to think strategically, and he’s picked up some other time management tricks. As a result, he creates time blocks on his calendar to ensure he has enough time for large projects that can’t be done in one sitting.”

Learning to manage their time well is one of the best life lessons we can teach our kids – and they learn it over and over again when we invite them into our at-home businesses!

Life Lesson #2: Reach for your dreams.

When our kids see us reaching for our dreams, it empowers them to do the same!

I recently did an interview with Melissa Ricker of Engineered Motherhood, and Melissa shared how she hopes her boys learn this particular life lesson from watching her:

“I hope they’re learning to never give up on what it is that they want. I think they see that in me that I have failed, several times… I hope that they can see that I keep showing up and trying and being consistent, and that they learn those lessons… Whatever it is that they want, there’s no magic button. [They] just have to be willing to trust [themselves], trust in God’s path for them, and show up and do the work.”

There’s no easy way to reach those dreams, but it CAN be done – and they’ll know it’s true because they see YOU do it!

Life Lesson #3: Be creative in how you earn a living.

Sometimes, our dreams simply don’t pay the rent. As a former teacher and college student life professional, I know firsthand how poorly some otherwise-noble professions can pay. But, when we don’t let our salaries determine our income, we teach our kiddos to be creative in how they earn enough money to live on.

When we consider that nearly 7.75 million workers held multiple jobs in January 2019 (and close to 8.7 million in 2023!), we see it’s not an uncommon situation to need more than one job to make ends meet! According to one economy expert, “The principal reason workers hold more than one position is that no single job provides a sufficient income.”

It stinks, but it’s our current reality. If your family is impacted by insufficient income, and you’re working a side hustle or at-home business to create a more comfortable financial situation, your kids are picking up on it! They’re learning that is it entirely possible to creatively piece together an income from a variety of sources and be financially stable when it’s their turn to provide for their families.

Life Lesson #4: Cultivate an empowered mindset.

Knowing how to be creative with their income streams helps cultivate an empowered mindset in our kids. If your kids know and believe that their income potential is entirely up to them, they’ll never have to be that person complaining on Facebook about how terrible their life is because they have no money!

I readily admit that it is incredibly easy to get stuck in that victim mentality. When life happens and things get hard, it’s so easy to believe that the whole world and all of Satan’s armies are out to get you and there’s nothing you can do about it.

But it’s NOT true!

While you may NOT be able to control WHAT happens to you or WHEN, you CAN control how you RESPOND to it! You can decide what filter you put on the picture of your life, and you can choose to frame it with the truth of God’s promises, no matter how hard your circumstances may be.

As WAHMs, we can help instill this empowered mindset by living it out in front of our kids!

Want to learn more about how we sometimes accidentally raise kids with a victim mentality – and how to fix it? Check out this great article from A Mother Far From Home!

Life Lesson #5: Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

When our kids learn that they are ultimately in control of how they respond to life and that there is power in creatively working to live according to their priorities and values, the old adage “where there’s a will, there’s a way” quickly becomes their life mantra. Or rather, if we’re doing our jobs really well as Christian mamas, they live by “where GOD wills, there’s a way!”

They listen to God’s leading for their lives and take action in the direction they feel called. If God is calling them to be home with their babies but are worried about finances, they know He will provide a way to also maintain their careers and income at home. Because they watched YOU follow His lead, they know He will take care of them, too!

Ready to learn more about leaning into God’s call for your business? Check out the 3 God-given gifts for building a WAHM business!

Life Lesson #6: Fail forward.

Starting and running a business from home is full of ups and downs, successes and failures. But, because we’re living out our work right in front of our kids, we’re able to teach them that failure is not the horrible thing we all fear it to be.

Just because we fail at something doesn’t mean we are failures. It means we learned what doesn’t work! We can reframe our failures to help our kids see how to move forward with new information that will create a better experience next time.

Science is even backing up this “fail forward” life lesson as one of the seven most important things we can do to raise extremely successful kids!

Life Lesson #7: Work hard for what you want.

Being a work-at-home mom and running your own business is hard work – there’s no way around it. But, if this life is what we really want and value, then the sacrifices we make are more than worth it.

Our kids see how our values shape and direct the way we work at home. They see us pursuing our purpose day after day. They see the blood, sweat, and tears we pour into this thing we feel called to do. And they learn that they have to work hard for what they want.

There are very few free handouts in life. The hard work is what makes the successes so sweet! The more our kids see us living out that reality, the more they will want it for themselves.

The Ultimate Goal for All Moms

Ultimately, we all want to raise kids who grow into responsible, productive, God-fearing members of society. We see that potential in our kids and long to see them step into it as adults. These seven life skills we get to live out in front of our kids every day give them a great foundation for lifelong success – whatever that may look like for them!

What will YOUR perfect WAHM business be?