Beautiful Chaos: Embracing Life's Wild Ride as a Mom-Entrepreneur

Vanessa Gentry
Jun 21
4 min read

By Vanessa Gentry

I've lost count of how many times someone has asked, "You want to do everything hey!?" while I'm frantically searching for my phone (usually in my hand) or realising I've just arrived at a client meeting with a unicorn sticker on my forehead. Between my two tornado-like small humans, my part-time marketing gig, this business I'm somehow growing, helping fellow local entrepreneurs stay afloat, helping my husband with our camper van rental adventures, and

toddler looking for a cuddle whilst i work

occasionally remembering I volunteered for the school PTA—the honest answer is: I have absolutely no idea.

Let me pull back the curtain on what it really looks like to be building this beautiful mess of a life, complete with forgotten permission slips and midnight business epiphanies.

The Gloriously Unfiltered Reality

For every carefully angled photo of me working peacefully with my laptop, there are twenty reality checks: client Zoom calls with a toddler suddenly appearing in dinosaur underwear, World Book day costumes made weeks in advance only to be forgotten on the day(I do try)

I used to think other mom entrepreneurs had some secret formula for balance. Now I realise we're all just surfing chaos waves and occasionally catching a glorious ride before wiping out spectacularly. And honestly? I wouldn't trade the wild unpredictability for anything.

Saying Yes to Everything (Send Help)

My friends joke that my life motto is "Why not?" which explains why in a single week I might be:

Finalising a client's social media strategy
Taking the kids to their fourth Legoland visit (annual passes were my best/worst decision)
Helping three local shops set up their Google Business profiles
Cleaning the camper van at midnight for renters arriving at 9am
Practicing burlesque choreography for the "Mums' Night Out" talent show that seemed like a hilarious idea after two glasses of wine at the last PTA meeting

My calendar looks less like organised time blocks and more like a Jackson Pollock painting. Color-coding helps until I forget which colour means what—is purple for kid activities or client meetings? Who knows! We'll find out when we get there!

Professional By Day, Glitter Enthusiast By Night

I used to think I needed separate identities: Professional Vanessa and Mom Vanessa. That lasted approximately three business days before a client caught me on a video call using a wooden spoon as a pretend microphone to distract my toddler.

Now I've embraced the beautiful collision of worlds. The same week I'm presenting marketing strategies, I'm also the mom showing up to school pickup still wearing the sequinned top from a midday burlesque rehearsal. My kids think all moms occasionally practice feather fan techniques in the kitchen while making dinner.

My Support System: A Random Collection of Wonderful Humans

Behind every "how does she do it" mom is actually a village of people enabling the controlled chaos:

The Gran who takes my kids with zero notice when a client emergency hits
The fellow school mum who texts "Wine emergency at mine, bring snacks" when she can see I'm about to lose it
My partner who deserves sainthood for heroically shuttling both kids to double-booked birthday parties across town (neither of which were in the family calendar) and who doesn't even flinch when I text "Surprise! The Hendersons and Patels are coming for dinner in an hour!" for the third time this month. He just smiles, stretches the spaghetti bolognese that was meant for four to somehow feed nine, and pours extra wine for everyone.

None of this support happened through careful planning. It's all evolved through desperate text messages, showing up imperfectly for each other, and the unspoken understanding that we're all just making it up as we go.

My Time Management "System" (I Use This Term Loosely)

People sometimes ask about my organisational systems, which makes me laugh until I snort. My approach to time management can best be described as "hopeful chaos with occasional bursts of productivity."

My weekly "schedule" includes such precise planning as:

Work happens...sometime between coffee and wine
Client meetings scheduled between the school runs.
School events remembered approximately 15 minutes before they start
Campervan turnovers completed through a combination of adrenaline and panic
Business development accomplished during the strange twilight hours when insomnia hits

The only truly consistent part of my schedule is that nothing ever goes according to it.

When Everything Falls Apart (Which Is Often)

Despite my commitment to embracing chaos, there are still days when it all becomes too much. The toddler gets sick during a crucial client presentation. The school calls about a forgotten lunch box while I'm cleaning half a beach from the campervan.

These moments have taught me that my superpower isn't organisation—it's adaptation. And sometimes adaptation looks like hiding in the pantry eating chocolate while texting SOS to my support network.

Building a Beautifully Messy Life

What keeps me powering through on three hours of sleep isn't some grand business vision—it's the joy of building a wonderfully chaotic life filled with experiences. In a single weekend, we might go from business meetings to Legoland adventures to me sneaking out for an adults-only burlesque class where I remember I'm more than just "Mum" or "Business Owner."

I'm not creating perfect balance. I'm creating beautiful memories mixed with successful client outcomes mixed with occasional disasters that make the best stories later.

So if you're also in this messy middle—juggling entrepreneurial dreams with toddler tantrums and wondering if it's unprofessional to have glitter permanently embedded in your laptop keyboard—know you're not alone. We're all figuring it out one forgotten school form and late-night business plan at a time.

And on the hardest days, I remind myself: life's too short not to say yes to both the campervan adventures and the burlesque nights out. Sleep is overrated anyway.

What beautiful chaos are you embracing in your life right now? Drop your stories in the comments—bonus points if they involve accidentally wearing house slippers to important meetings!