Lintz - Meet the homeschooling moms of direct sales

Mother, may I go out to swim?
Yes, my darling daughter,
Hang your clothes on a hickory limb,
And don't go near the water !

The Hickory Limb

Parker Fillmore

As a homeschooling mother of five, I cant tell you how many times Ive felt like the little girl in the famous nursery rhyme, The Hickory Limb. Maybe you have too. So much you want to do, so much you DESERVE to do, but you just cant give yourself permission to do it.

Just a few simple pleasures, please. Like not feeling guilty about buying that special pair of boots, or not feeling sick to your stomach just before the grocery bill rings up. Youve got your examples. Ive got mine. They all hurt.

Now the good news! You have the power to change the rhyme! You can give yourself permission, and feel good doing it! Let me show you how.

The following five wonderful ladies and myself have some personal stories to tell, all tailored around a central theme of homeschooling moms who found a way to balance their desires for their childrens education with income opportunities that could put them in control of their financial freedom. Its called Direct Sales, and it has game changing potential if you play your cards right.

Keep reading! Its not what you think! Sales is not a scary word here. Im telling you, its a game changer! Read on!

Tiffany Hathorn - Plexus

Meet Tiffany Hathorn

Single Mom, Plexus Worldwide Ambassador & Homeschooling Mom

Lets start at the very beginning - a very good place to start. (Any Sound of Music fans out there?)

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tiffany Hathorn. I am a 20-something single (well, 29, but let me enjoy my last few months of being able to say that, haha!) WAHM of an awesome 4 year old son/ninja. I also homeschool. Some people think I am crazy for taking on all of this, but I honestly wouldnt have it any other way.

No, waitI lie. Having a home office with a lock on the door would help. As would having a room dedicated purely to homeschooling. But that is what I am working towards.

You seeI am no different than many other people out there. My life is not perfect. I dont have a luxury car (yet definitely working towards earning the free Lexus that my direct sales company offers) sitting in my driveway. I am not making 5 figures a month. I am not at the top of my companys compensation plan. And Lord knows I am not teacher of the year.

You know what I have accomplished, though? Living my life by my own terms. And that is something that not everyone can say.

For you to fully understand where I am now, we have to take a trip into the past. Back to when I first decided that direct sales was something worth investing my time into.

The year was 2010. It was actually around the time that I am writing this, which is Christmas. That year my son had just been born (a few months earlier). It was his first Christmas and his father and I were broke. We couldnt afford to get him a single gift. That broke my heart. I felt like a failure! At the time I was a stay at home mom and my ex-fianc was the one taking care of all of the finances. I tell you I HATED that! I hated the idea of not contributing to the household in a financial way. Perhaps if we were not struggling, it would not have been as much of an issue for me. But we were struggling. And I wasnt used to that. Before I had my son, I had a well-paying job as a live-in nanny. Great pay. Great benefits. Life was good. But I quit that job and moved halfway across the country to be closer to my family when I was 7 months pregnant. So it all fell to my ex to make ends meet.

I could have easily gotten a job. At the time, I had already attained two bachelors degrees. And I had work experience. But I hated the idea of leaving my son every day. And my ex wasnt really too keen on me working either. So I was on the hunt for something that I could do at home that would enable me to contribute financially. That is when I thought of direct sales.

I had already given it a shot when I was 18 and I failed miserably. My sponsor signed me up and then was apparently sucked into the Twilight Zone. She was not there to provide me any training whatsoever and so I quit after a couple of months. But this time I knew better. On my birthday of 2011, I decided to invest in myself. I used part of my tax refund to join a company with a sponsor that I trusted and a team that was supportive and offered training. This began an incredible journey. A journey that I was truly thankful for when I became a single mom in May of 2011. That was the toughest time of my life. It was a very difficult adjustment, as you can probably imagine.

The worst part was that I was forced to get a regular job. I hated it. It made me miserable having to leave my son in the morning, work at a job that I did not enjoy, and then come home with just enough time to put my son to sleep and do it all over again the next day. So I quit after a couple of months and focused on direct sales. Things were ok, but I wasnt making enough to easily pay all of the bills. So I would get nervous about not having enough money and get another regular job. Then end up miserable and quitting. I continued this cycle for about 6 months. In February of 2012, I finally decided that enough was enough and that I would never work a regular job again until I was fully ready to. Instead, I would throw all of my energy into being able to work from home. I quit my job and jumped into my direct sales business full force. And I havent looked back since, except to thank my lucky stars that I have been able to work from home fulltime for nearly 3 years.

So when did homeschooling come into the picture? Actually, I decided to homeschool before my son had even taken his first breath. When I was pregnant, I became really excited about the idea of teaching my son on my own. Id had years of experience working with children as a babysitter in my teens and then as a nanny. I had also done some tutoring in college. It seemed only natural that I would be able to teach my own child (in fact, one of my jobs after I became a single mom was as an early childhood educator). Fortunately, I live in a very homeschool-friendly area. There are a ton of other homeschooling families here that have co-op groups and used book sales. So I was able to educate myself, connect with other homeschooling moms, and start collecting homeschool supplies before my son arrived. So my homeschool journey began in the summer of 2010.

Last year was the first year that I really tried to do something more formal as far as actively working on concepts. However, this year is the first year that we have become very involved with the homeschool community and I find myself amazed at all of the things I still have to learn and all of the resources there are out there if you take the time to look for them. Now that I have finished my masters degree in Educational Psychology, I look forward to implementing that into developing a curriculum for my son for next year.

I am also amazed at how much ignorance exists about homeschooling. I hear so many criticisms and bits of misinformation about homeschooling and I wish that there were a way to educate people about how wonderful this education option is. Granted, I do not think that homeschooling is for everyone. I dont think there is a single thing in this world that is one size fits all. But I truly feel sad for those people who refuse to even learn about it and what it really is. I can only hope that by my talking about it here and on my blog (did I forget to mention that I have been blogging since I was pregnant?) that more people will at least take the time to learn the truth about it, even if they decide that it is not the right fit for their family.