Full-time single parent, with full-time job plus own business (web-based, work nights and weekends to keep it going). Three years in and I am finally making money (though not out of debt yet)... still keeping the day job because I have the joy of a fabulous workplace with incredible benefits and a steady paycheck was necessary when I was starting up.

I have been devouring the entries of women with small children (my young daughter has never known me not to work), and I will say this for our experience: Our time together is never wasted because it never feels like enough. (I work on my home-based business after she is in bed and on weekends when we aren't doing something together. In the beginning, though, she was a big part of my work, and a complete rockstar toddler/trusty sidekick as we put in the many hours together that it takes to get something off the ground.)

From the time she was a toddler, I've had my own business and a day job, plus consulting gigs to make ends meet. My little girl loves to play 'office' and uses my old (broken) laptop and a cell phone she made out of cardboard and marker pens to 'make important calls' and 'have meetings' ... I spent a bit of time feeling guilty that this was her idea of play, but then began to take great pride in the fact that

(1) she wanted to follow my example (note to self to be clear about work vs. play time ... it took some time for me to master that one and 'turn off' when we were having mommy/daughter time)

(2) in her life she is an incredibly high-energy participant. She considers it her responsibility in school to take part and try all the activities, she understands what respect and commitment means - from not missing a preschool soccer game to keeping a promise to addressing people who are not her peers formally - and while these are things I encourage as a parent, they are also things I show by example in my work.

And (3) she does not believe that life holds limits. Given our situation (full-time working single parent family), by all that is conventional, we should not be starting a business. But I'd always intended to run my own company, I saw a need, filled it, and built a business around it. My girl doesn't hear me complain about a problem, she sees me seek a solution and create the solution if it doesn't already exist. This is one example I am proud to have set (although it has backfired on occasion, what with her not always amenable to taking 'no' for an answer!!)

It does sometimes get incredibly overwhelming, and I can't imagine what our lives would be like if there were more than just the two of us (one example I am not setting for her is how two parents love one another, compromise and build a life - a shame because my wonderful parents are still together and a shining example of just such love).

Thus ends the rambling. Are there other entrepreneur moms out there with similar experiences? How are your decisions playing out in the way you're raising your little one(s)? Do you think overall it's a decision you would make again if you had the choice (to start your own business while raising a family)?