by Phillip Blume

Have you ever felt you’re failing as both a parent and businessperson? As if the two are impossible to balance? My wife, Eileen, and I sure have. But there’s good news. While we’re still far from being perfect parents (like lightyears away), we’ve learned a number of habits over the years that make a world of difference for us and our three children. Actually, I think my own parents taught me most of these habits — it just took me half of a lifetime to realize it.

There’s no secret formula to parenting. So unlike my other articles, I don’t have a three-step system for you this month. But I would like to speak to you from the heart, one parent to another.

When the Going Gets Tough

When I was a child, my dad ran his home business from a spare room in our drafty 100-year-old farmhouse. His office was the only air conditioned room in our home, so during muggy Georgia summers my siblings and I retreated there. Lego bricks lay scattered across my dad’s drafting table, kiddie songs played over his vintage turntable, and G.I. Joes hung on strings from the A/C unit that rattled in the window. He should have been furious. Instead I mostly remember hearing his laughter and catching him often gazing at us with pride in his eyes. It was the best of times and, though my dad never complained, it was the worst of times.

When I was seven my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Dad’s meager income could no longer feed our family of six, much less pay doctors’ bills. So he abandoned his dream of self-employment and took any work he could get. He got a job as a salesman, hocking vacuum cleaners house to house. His vacuum demos were in the evenings, when other people got home from work. So for the first time in my young life, our family gathered around the dinner table without Dad.

The Blume family had always formed a full circle around our table, filling the room with laughter that convinced us everything would be okay. Now my dad’s empty chair sat as a silent reminder the future was uncertain. I stretched further than usual across the table to reach my mom’s hand, then listened to her voice in place of his as she gave thanks. But I didn’t feel thankful. I felt alone and scared.

The first thing I want to say to you is this. You are doing a great job! None of us is a perfect mom or dad. All of us have failed many times — missed a ball game, lost our temper, or forgot to pick our kids up after school. So stop beating yourself up. You love your children, and that’s why you work so hard for them. They know you love them, too. So even if you can’t be at the table for dinner right now, never stop putting it all on the line for your family!

The Tough Get Going

Today my wife, Eileen, and I run four businesses together, including three studios and an educational platform to help other photographers find success, too. We also parent and homeschool our three children, Jasmine (8), Juliette (6), and Leonardo (5). How do we do it all?

First, and more important, is why we do it. Our mission is simple: To help hardworking photographers find healthier success — so you don’t have to choose between putting bread on your family’s table and being at the table yourself. Yes, some personality types live for the “hustle.” But if that’s just not you, you’re in good company with us. During this too-brief stage in life, Eileen and I are absolutely living for the precious moments we share with our kids. Realize how fast they grow up! You may have just a few sacred summers left to enjoy and influence your child before he or she is independent. Don’t miss it!

So back to “how do we do it.” To be honest, sometimes we don’t. Some days we still fail. But I will tell you this — it gets better. If you’re in a rough patch and overwhelmed, don’t accept the status quo. It’s not inevitable. It’s time to get tough, get disciplined, and make changes. You and your kids are worth it!    

Without a doubt, being both a parent and a self-employed artist is a huge challenge. But here are a few tips we pray will help you!

       

Be a Professional

As we began the process to adopt our third child, our agency enlisted us in a ton of parental training and counseling. To our shock, we spent even more time that year attending parenting seminars than photography conferences. Since adopting a child is  a huge step, it is best to contact experienced divorce attorneys for military families to give you counseling and take you through all the legal formalities. The new perspective and tools we walked away with were so amazing that our only regret was that we hadn’t invested in counseling before!

Have you ever thought of “parenting” as an art form? It is! Or if you have your kids at home full-time as we do, have you thought of parenting as your “other” profession? Have you invested nearly as much time in reading, listening, and training yourself to be a parent as you have in being a photographer? If not, start simply. Get a great parenting book. We love The Connected Child by Drs. Purvis and Cross with W. Sunshine. Although written to help parents of children who’ve suffered trauma, it is a brilliantly researched look into basic human behavior and emotional health that’s fully changed how we parent all our kids. 

Be Present

One of the most impactful tools we’ve gained is “emotional presence.” Simply put, it means giving 100 percent of your attention to the person you’re interacting with, and it has a powerful impact in families (in business, too, for that matter). We never valued this technique with our eldest daughter. She was the first baby who grew up staring at our backs from her play mat while we stared at monitors, unable to keep our heads above the editing flood in our first years as photographers.

She was naturally compliant and yearned to please. As soon as she walked, we could yell instructions to her across the house, and she’d hear and obey. We took full advantage of the fact, constantly multitasking and, as we now realize, neglecting important parts of our daughter’s emotional development.

But when our second girl came, it became frighteningly clear we were out of our depth with this “born artist.” No matter how loud I yelled or how angry I sounded, this child would act as if I didn’t exist. We had her hearing checked, but it was perfect. She spent a significant percentage of her small life in time-out, but it was useless. I so regret the anger and harsh words I heaped on her little heart during her early years. Now I know her incredibly imaginative mind just works differently. When she’s at play, she is fully tuned-out — no less (maybe even more!) than I am when I’m on my smartphone, when I completely fail to feel a little hand tugging on my shirt.

With our second daughter and now with our son, we’ve learned our behavior (not theirs.. well, sometimes theirs!) was the problem. Instead of shouting to stop them playing ball near my camera lenses again, I only need to step away from my computer and get down on their level. On one knee, I gently lift my daughter’s chin with my hand so our eyes meet. She sees a look of loving concern in my eyes, not anger. I talk more softly than usual, not louder. And, miracle of miracles, she hears me! The more consistent I am, the more responsive she is.

Hands Up, Back Away From the Phone

Smartphones are toxic for kids.. and you. They are more than a bad habit — they’re proven to be chemically addictive. That hit of dopamine your brain gets every time you flip on the blue screen is a mind-numbing drug.

Eileen and I have struggled with this addiction, too. If you need a support group to keep you accountable, join us anytime. Our kids have made their feelings on the topic clear: “Mommy, look at me. Get off your phone;” “I hate your phone, Daddy.” Kids are perceptive, aren’t they? If confession is the first step to correction, let’s admit we’re a neglectful generation of parents. They see what’s going on better than we do at times. And to think we have even let them watch our phones for extended periods to distract them while we worked! It risks becoming like sharing needles with our kids.

To combat the addiction, we’ve taken several drastic yet firm steps. Join us:

First, smartphones live outside our bedroom. Use an old-school alarm if you need it and break the addiction. Secondly, at the table I want my kids to see their parents laugh and interact the way my folks did; so absolutely no phones at the table. Not even in our pockets. Did you know studies show that people’s I.Q. drops simply by having physical contact with their phones?

Beyond the phone, computer work ends at 5:00pm. If we can’t finish by 5:00pm on most days, it tells us that either: a.) we are being inefficient and distracted, or b.) we are taking on more work than we can handle, in which case it’s time to choose another task to outsource or simply scale back. Listen to this because almost no one says it — yes, it is possible to accept too much work!! It’s called making priorities, my friend. And sometimes our priorities as parents require us to turn down money. Simple as that.

It may sound crazy, but we finally removed the TV from our home. Yes, we still allow some shows on the iPad. But it’s amazing how infrequent the pleas for shows has become since we removed the big 52” temptation. Yes, after a couple days of complaining kids really do re-learn how to make believe. All of us feel like our brains are healthier as a result, too! 

Define Roles

We do make occasional exceptions to the 5pm rule during busy portrait season. But when there’s an exception, we’re dedicated to giving our kids at least one available parent at all times. So Eileen and I switch roles through the day. In the morning, she homeschools the kids while I work on marketing and email replies.

We eat lunch together. Then in the afternoon, she works on editing, design, and product orders. It’s better when we aren’t hovering, critiquing each other’s work anyway. It’s a trust thing!

What about photo shoots? There was a time when my parents were able to help often. But seasons change, and now they need more of our help. So our kids have learned to be great travelers, joining us on most of our global adventures — attending conferences with us when we speak, and even tagging along for weddings and fashion shoots. Although we usually do get sitters during actual photo shoots, we’ll never forget moments like when fashion designer Alida Herbst played “fairy godmother” to our kids in her London studio, sharing her collection of broaches with them while we shot models. It’s your family and your business! It’s what you make of it.               

  

Believe in the Dream

Only God knows why Eileen and I dared start both our photography business and a family at the same time. But this very month, as we celebrate 11 years of marriage and business together, we’re thanking Him for three pairs of little hands that join ours around the table every night. God also knows we wouldn’t change a thing. We’re parents first, photographers second. But even when it’s hard, it’s pretty cool how blessed we are to do both together!