Breaking All The Rules

When I was working full-time, I had a babysitter, no questions asked. There came a time when the babysitter went from being all-day to just after school, but either way, close to 52 weeks a year, as a rule, if it was a weekday, there was a babysitter.
 
There has not been a babysitter at our home every weekday for quite some time now. Now I am freelancing, and if I have learned anything about freelancing over the last two years, it is that freelancing changes all the rules, in fact, basically eliminates most of them.
 
Freelancing means that grocery shopping may or may not need to be done on the weekends. Freelancing means that today I may consider myself available for next week's school potluck, but by the time the potluck rolls around, I may not be available anymore. Freelancing means that I might plan to put a child on the bus in the morning, and find myself scrambling to find someone who can do it when my call time for work changes the night before. And freelancing means that some weeks, I feel good about paying the bills, and others, it's barely a possibility. If we live our lives by any kind of rules, freelancing basically changes them all.
 
Luckily, I have never been a person completely bound by rules; however, playing with virtually none is something that is taking time to get used to. Each time that I begin to feel as though a gig could last awhile, I suddenly find myself back being the mom who's always there for pickup. And once I've gotten used to being that mom, I suddenly disappear, once again unavailable for lunches, coffees, and school events.
 
I have a feeling I will get used to the freelance life--eventually, at least. It does afford me free hours (even if I can't necessarily choose which hours they are), and it keeps both me and the bank account active and on our toes, which is good for me, and for my family. And let's face it, in my profession (and in many others these days), freelancing is just how it is. My twenty-some odd years full-time were the exception, not the rule, so if now, I am learning new rules (or how to live with no rules), perhaps it is just an education long overdue. And since there are no rules, I figure I have a pretty good chance of passing.