Tag Archives: WAHM

Becoming a SAHM … is it right for you?

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For my husband and me, deciding whether or not I would leave the onsite workforce when our first set of twins arrived wasn’t tough for us. Placing two newborns in daycare would have been very expensive, so we decided to accept and compensate for our temporary reduction in income. As challenging as it was in the early days while staying home with infants twins, the lack of stress that would have been involved with providing a daycare sitter enough pumped breast milk, diapers, clothing, etc., for two babies while I went to work just to pump milk far outweighed any income we would have kept after paying the monthly daycare bill.

I was happy with my decision, and I’ll never regret having stayed home with my children while they were preschool aged. Although my income would have prevented some financial strains over the years, I would have regretted missing out on my children’s early lives which already flew by too quickly. By the time we had six kids between the ages of 0 and 12, my taking care of our busy children just made sense.

I was fortunate that my career skills as a graphic designer provided me the ability to work from home while I was a SAHM (Stay-At-Home-Mom). When my eldest set of twins were six months old, I began to provide freelance design and production services for the office department where I had previously held a full-time position. I simply worked on a per-project basis via remote access, and with the arrivals of twin sets two and three, I eventually operated my own part-time design business from my home office. It wasn’t easy balancing my family and professional life, but doing so gave us some needed supplemental income, and I could stay current in my field’s ever changing technology.

There are ever-growing opportunities these days to allow a SAHM to become a WAHM should she choose to do so.

There were, and will probably always be, those who criticize a mother’s decision to continue working outside of the home and criticize those who leave the workforce to stay at home with her children, so parents simply have to decide what feels right and makes the most sense for their own family.

The above article was submitted to What To Expect on 3/6/19 for story contributions of “What factors should be considered before a woman decides to be a SAHM?”

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When It’s Time for a Change (and I’m not talking about your baby’s wet diaper)

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“Fran, how and why do you do all that you do?” Here is a question I get a lot. So let me go back to the beginning and explain how I got here.

While pursuing my college degree in Graphic Design, I was active in musical theater. By the time I was married a few years, I’d worked my way up to associate art director with a suburban Washington, DC advertising agency, and then to lead designer with the publications/presentations department of a large computer corporation. This was my day job back then, while my side gig was singing backup and lead vocals in a local rock band.

Then I had my first set of twins in Dec of 1994.

I was very happy to continue my career and contribute to our family income while working from my home office on a freelance basis during the years my husband and I raised our first, then second, and then third set of twins between 1995 and 2013. In 2009 I wrote and published: TWINS x3, a book in which I shared the roller coaster life I was leading as the mom of three sets of twins. Shortly after the book was released, I began a mommy blog (the blog you’re reading now) to support parents of multiples based on my own experiences and to help promote my book. Although I had never lost my love for singing, music and performing, the time was simply never right to get back into it because I was so busy with my work and children. I was beginning to accept that this part of me had ended.

In 2014, my right shoulder was severely injured which resulted in two separate surgeries and long courses of physical and massage therapies. Because my healing process was long and difficult, but ultimately successful, I was very grateful and desired to “pay it forward”. With my husband’s support, I went back to school at night while continuing to work part-time during the day and caring for my family. In August of 2016 I completed my courses, sat for the state health department board exam, and became a Licensed Clinical Massage Therapist. I then began working with the physical therapy department of a Primary Care Physicians office.


In the summer of 2017, with my youngest set of twins now approaching the age of 10, it struck me that perhaps, just maybe, I could investigate options for singing professionally part-time again. My desire to live this part of me just couldn’t be held in any longer. The kids were all growing up, and maybe it wasn’t too late to start again. At a local studio, I recorded some cover demo songs in order to market myself, designed and created a music website, posted on social media, and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. After an incredible turn of events, I found myself singing backup vocals with a long-time professional singer on a New York City stage in October 2017. In 2018 I planned, promoted and produced a July performance in my hometown of Jacksonville where the NYC singer and I performed together. Meanwhile, I wrote song lyrics and began working and recording with a local composer/arranger. In November of 2018, we independently produced and released my first album of original songs, and today this music can be found on most music streaming sites. The album’s title song is called “You Always Were” which is a song I wrote about how music has always been a part of me, and how happy I am that it’s back in my life. I continue to work part-time as a clinical massage therapist.

I’ve been asked over the years if I would write another book. Instead, I recently decided to update my book TWINS x3 so I could fill in my readers on what has happened these last 10 years with myself, my husband and our six amazing children. The 10-year-Anniverary, 2019 Edition of TWINS x3 is out now!

The above article was submitted to Women’s Health Magazine on 1/30/19 for story contributions to “Women in the U.S.: What triggered your career change(s)?”