Sometimes as a work at home mom you are not lucky enough to have a supportive spouse by your side. This lack of support will always cause friction if not dealt with and at least an understanding made. If you do not have a partner or spouse that supports your effort, the first thing you have to do is try and figure out why.
Take a step back for a second and try to figure out why that person is being so non-supportive of your business. The obvious reasons will be easy to spot, maybe they are not confident in your business choice and think it will not work, maybe they are unsure that working at home can provide an income at all or if this isn’t you first foray into working at home, past unsuccessful ventures could be looming as reasons. Unfortunately however, you may find that most of the reasons that come up may not have anything to do with their confidence in you and your ability.
Some of the reasons you may have to dig deeper for like the feeling you are choosing your business over your spouse or partner. There could be a feeling that you are neglecting family responsibilities you usually did in favor of your new business. Another possibility is the pressure they feel to provide a stable income to cover everything because your income is no longer guaranteed. With a little time to yourself, the reason or reasons will come out and you will be able to approach your spouse or partner with them to sort them out.
Now that you have a game plan straight it is time to sit down with your partner and spend some time, just the two of you, talking. The key to this talk is the approach. You must go into this calm and without being augmentative. The reason for their lack of support, though may appear petty to you, is very real to them. If this is one of the obvious reasons you are trying to approach, you may have to come up with some facts as to why you chose this business, the money it could bring in (be conservative) and why this will be different from past experiences.
Have a map of your business plan for them to look over. Set some realistic goals and share them. Write them down so both of you can track them. As you meet your goals, mark them off the list to show what progress you are making and how serious you are about reaching them.
For the other reasons you will have to come with more assurances. Let your partner know how important it is for you to have a successful business along with maintaining a smooth and happy family life. Gently remind them that one of the reasons for starting to work from home was to spend more time at home. If the reason is more geared to a feeling of neglect, see if there is a way to involve your partner in the business. He could be as simple as asking for some business advice or an opinion every now and then.
If after this discussion, there is no real resolution you may want to consider getting help from a professional. It is very hard to run a family and just has hard to run a business so if you are now trying to do both and not getting any support the stress as well as bad feelings could turn something easily remedied into a permanent riff.
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