Tell me you don't call yourself a sahm in public when you work 20 hours a week. You work more than I do and I don't call myself a sahm.

PP/editor here-- meant to add that of course, when I'm not working (i.e. on vacation), I don't get paid. That's the deal when you don't have a salaried position-- same thing for hourly workers all around the country and the world. And now, I wouldn't trade this gig for an in-office position for anything in the world. I love my flexibility, the fact that I can take my laptop to a beautiful park with WiFi and work there for half a day whenever the mood strikes me, the fact that my work is interesting, and that I can schedule it around my family.

I freelance from home (editorial work) and have gradually increased the amount of work and clients that I take on as my kids have gotten older. But I still only work between about 8 and 20 (rarely) hours a week. It varies tremendously, and as a result, my income is pretty low. (Probably about $22 K this year). But I only take on projects that align with my family's schedule. So I am working every weekend this spring, but when we head out for vacation for two weeks in late June, I expect to be between projects and have very little if any need to be in touch with my clients.

I have a part-time gig. My slow season is April and May. I save up funds the rest of the year to tide me over during my slow season.

First of all you aren't a SAHM if you are working 20+ hours a week.

I do consulting work and it's hard to take a week off. I usually do a Thursday-Tuesday kind of thing to be able to work the rest of both weeks. We go away at Xmas to ski and that's usually a good break. And when I go out of the country it's a good break, although on my last trip I worked while we were traveling from place to place. Part of it is the money but most of it is just needing to juggle multiple projects and keep clients happy.

If you are working only twenty hours a week you are getting twenty hours a week off compared to most people. You're really complaining about that?

I've been working part-time and also taking on some freelance projects for over a year now (SAHM). It's been somewhat hard to actually take off a real full week or two from the work without experiencing a pay cut if I do not work. I work as a freelance editor and also have a telework job on the side that requires at least 20+ hours per week. I've been able to take off a full week-- and actually not work at all-- only once. I have a few days off here and there, but have not been able to fully remove myself from work the way I used to be able to when working full time due to my hourly pay and lack of real paid vacation time. It's basically, no work, no hours, no pay. For those of you in the same boat, how do you find yourself real breaks? Is it even possible? Are you starting to actually miss a full time job with real benefits, i.e. 3 weeks vacation?