The Wasteful Activities of a Childless Designer

Jan 4, 2009

A little over a year ago, when I was a free, childless, freelance web designer, I had plenty of time to do things like:

Encrypt my style sheets so plagiarists wouldn’t have such an easy ride with my portfolio site
Put and manage traps to find out when somebody downloaded my portfolio site with a program (copyright threat)
Review site statistics and traffic on a daily basis
Download site logs for record keeping
Read daily blog posts of several top web designers and industry publications
Monitor several web design galleries for daily inspiration and to make sure nobody was plagiarizing my work
Read Plagiarism Today on a daily basis
Record purchases and receipts the same day they happened
Read Martha Stewart Living the minute it came
Play
Feel unaccomplished compared to top web designers and bloggers

These days, all my schedule can fit is:

Joaquin • Groom • Eat • Make • Etsy • Blog • Photos • Read a few blogs • Feel unaccomplished compared to other artisans and artists

Children really force you to prioritize your activities and interests… I still don’t want people plagiarizing my work, but I don’t have the time to keep attempting to prevent it. I prefer to focus on what makes me happiest; I don’t have time to think further than a few hours ahead; reconciling my financial accounts has become a nightmare, and I still always manage to feel unaccomplished… Some things never change… But others do, so I have updated my About page to reflect better the person I am today.

Hello, you Super mom of an Awesome autistic child.

If my experience and words speak to you, I invite you to learn about my mentoring service for autism parents.

Intentional parenting, development, and education for our children is my passion. My purpose is to empower you with the emotional and practical support you need to thrive as you reach for every outcome you dream of for you and your child’s life.

Learn More

6 comments:

On Jan 4, 2009, KSR wrote:

No one ever really believes or comprehends it until they live it……welcome to the rest of your life! Don’t ever feel unaccomplished…you are a woman who has it all! and best of all, you have the luxury of being able to make choices…enjoy that for all it’s worth. and keep your healthy outlook—-you are a great mom, but you are not defined as a person by your baby anymore than you are defined by your husband……You have two lovely men in your life and you are all blessed to have each other….I for one greatly admire the woman you are and completely enjoy watching vicariously as you discover you!
On Jan 4, 2009, Maria wrote:

What a sweet comment Kim, thank you. This is not half as deep as what you just said, but coincidentally, a few minutes ago I was thinking of you, realizing how many little things I do, are similar to what I saw in you when I lived with you guys. I’m talking about silly little routine stuff like cooking, cleaning, etc… But at a higher level, you and I share other things. Mom and I always talk about how — if the lovely men in our lives weren’t there — the three of us (you, mom and I) could live happily together.
On Jan 4, 2009, Chris wrote:

Sorry Joey, you didn’t make the tag cloud. Maybe in a year or so.
On Jan 4, 2009, Maria wrote:

HA! HA!… Maybe.
It’s a good thing I’m not in his tag cloud either. I think he’s all about Joaquin, work, and Dyson these days.
On Jan 5, 2009, Petie wrote:

Did y’all get a new vacuum? Is it really that good? We may be in the market soon, too.
On Jan 5, 2009, Maria wrote:

Joey will be ECSTATIC to answer all of your questions. He really wants to talk about his new Dyson, but he’s not getting a very interested audience at home.

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