Since I first started my private practice back in 2007, I had a “no weekends” policy. I’ve had families ask about Saturday and Sunday lessons and music therapy sessions, but I always stood firm that I would limit my work week to 5 days. Until now.

The thing is, Sunday has never really served as a day of rest for me. After choir practice and church in the morning, I usually come home and work on a songwriting/recording project or prepare session materials, which works out nicely since my husband is usually busy watching football anyway. And on most Sundays, I head back to church in the late afternoon to teach my early childhood music class. So even though my studio was never open for business on this day in the past, I still was always in work mode.

This summer as I was planning my studio schedule, I realized that something would have to give. With a full load of students and no plans to downsize, plus having to build time in my schedule to pump (one of the very few downsides of being a nursing mom), my choices were to either work well into the night — 8:30 pm on most evenings — or open up a couple hours on Sundays (Saturdays will always be off the table).

The answer was a no-brainer, because a) no family wants to trek out so late in the evening; and b) there’s no way I’m going to miss my baby’s bedtime each night. But I wasn’t sure if there would be any interest in a Sunday session, so I threw it out to all my families in an email. Lo and behold, at least 10 parents immediately responded that they would be very interested. I decided to offer 4 spots on a first-come, first-serve basis, which means I’ll be devoting 2 hours to students every Sunday afternoon.

Some of my friends and family have questioned this decision, but I feel good about it. The way I see it, most working moms don’t have the opportunity to be at home with their children for most of the day on a daily basis, and I do, thanks to an afternoon/evening schedule and no commute. And since I won’t start working until 12:30 on Sundays, I can still go on short weekend trips and be home before my first student arrives.

That being said, I hope I don’t regret my decision once the plan is actually set in motion a week from Sunday. Getting back into the swing of things is going to be an adjustment all around, and though I definitely have some butterflies about the transition, I’m excited.