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A few months ago, I wrote about my dog sitting side hustle that evolved sort of by accident when my husband and I were trying to decide whether we wanted a dog of our own. It turns out, dog sitting can be fairly lucrative, and pretty quickly, it became a very nice side business for us. We quickly realized that we love having a variety of dogs coming and going from our house, and if we can make money while we do it, all the better. So why would we ever walk away from something we love that also earns us money? That would be crazy right? Well we did, and I’m going to tell you why.

A few weeks ago, we welcomed our first child into the world and as anyone reading this with children will know, things got a little crazy there for a few weeks. As we prepared our house for the new baby, my husband suggested that we stop accepting dogs for the month prior to my due date, so that we would be able to focus on preparing for the baby and also just have some down time before the baby arrived and things got crazy. I, on the other hand, never wanting to pass up the opportunity to earn extra cash, wanted to keep boarding dogs right up until my due date. Luckily, I came to my senses and listened to my husband’s suggestion and our last dog got picked up almost exactly 4 weeks before my due date.

Almost as if I had planned it, our little girl arrived just 8 days after that last pup left our house – 3 weeks early. In spite of all the advice all of my child rearing friends gave me, I could not have truly understood how crazy our world was about to become. For 2 weeks, I woke up and did my best just to keep us all fed and in clean clothes each day, and some days even that felt like a stretch. We have now found our rhythm and are adjusting to life as parents, but I can only imagine adding a dog to the craziness of our first 2 weeks at home.

I do hope that we get back to boarding once our little one is a little bit older, but I think what I learned through this experience is that sometimes, you have to step away from things, and the reason isn’t always about the dollar signs. Aside from my own sanity, I wouldn’t want to agree to care for a family’s pet without feeling like I could focus my attention on keeping them happy and healthy while under our care. Sometimes, it’s more important to focus your energy on one thing and push other things to the side, if only temporarily. As hard as it can be to admit it, we only have the bandwidth for so much at one time. Make sure to prioritize your own sanity first.