I had the privilege of attending this year’s H.O.P.E. Summit (Hands-On Parent While Earning) and I absolutely had a blast! Special thanks to Dulce and Kenny of Kansis Made for bringing me to the event!!

Dulce and Kenny of Kansis Made

In the morning, the main speaker, Teresa Dumadag, talked about Time Management and gave us some worksheets that identified our “real time use” of our most abused commodity as a mother — time. Her talk helped us identify how we are actually using our time and how we can move those time wasters to more productive hours. It is just about intentions. If I intend for my daughter to remember me as a mother who had undivided time for her, then I would not Facebook while we play (which is something I am guilty of doing).

Teresa Dumadag, Founder of H.O.P.E. Summit

I felt inspired that even if she has 3 children all under 10 years old without a yaya (!) she still manages to pursue her passion like training and coaching. I can relate to her in many levels. I also do not have a helper at home. I bring the whole gang when I need to attend a meeting. When I was still hosting weddings, my husband and daughter would be with me in all my meetings and hosting gigs.

The afternoon session started with a short talk by Cathy Bautista, an equally inspiring woman! She is a mom of 3 who left the banking world and became a successful freelance Finance Advisor. I love her story, her personality and her courage. One thing I want to emulate is how positive she is about life. She has a gratitude attitude that I believe brought her to success. No matter what adversity, stay thankful!

Cathy’s talk was followed by Teresa sharing with us her talk on Freelancing. She gave straight-forward and doable tips on how you can make money by doing what you love. It gave me even more courage. You just gotta start somewhere. Be an expert. Build your name. Help people. And it’s going to be a non stop business. Ultimately, work around the kind of lifestyle you want which is the very reason you went out of the 8-5 — to spend more time with the family.

Some of the mommies I met at the event. (left to right) Jem, one of the panelists, Amelia, Anna and Dulce (and her daughter)

The panel discussion that came after was inspiring in that they are real life stories of courage and overcoming challenges. I love hearing their stories. One of my favorites was Mom & Milly’s humble beginnings. Kat, the Mom behind this wooden toys business, particularly inspired me when she shared their biggest hurdle and their courageous response of moving forward.

(extreme right) Kat, also one of the panelists, is the mom behind Mom & Milly

The whole day seminar ended with an engaging talk by Mariel Uyquiengco of The Learning Basket. She talked about Positive Discipline. I must admit my husband and I are in the opposing extreme side of the spectrum. He is very permissive and says yes to everything while I am very authoritative that I command and run my daughter’s life around my rules. I realized there is balance and being a total disciplinarian won’t work long term and would actually strain our relationship which is not something I want to happen! I can write an entire blog post series on what I learned from her short talk but I would leave you with her website: The Learning Basket and learn even more from there!

The talk left me inspired that it can be done! The people I have met are just like me. They have children that need their attention but they did not see this as a hurdle but as a driving force to work towards their passion, earn and spend quality time with our family.

Do you also want to be a hands-on parent while earning?
Any tips you have for work at home moms?