Working From Home

1. You’re still working. It’s not like having a year round vacation from your job. I know that sounds really obvious, but you’d be surprised how quickly your brain can trick you into thinking you’ll have time for everything you haven’t had a chance to do between working full time outside the home and raising your kids. 

Being a work at home mom means I don’t have to get up at 5:00 am and wrestle with the blow dryer, panty hose, and pumps. It means I can sleep in a little (the kiddos are still getting up at 7:00 after all) and maybe have a cup of tea, but I still have to get to work at some point.

When you work from home, you have to actually work at some point and that does mean time away from the kiddos. A lot of the time, I can do most of my work while my little guy is napping, but sometimes I have to call in reinforcements or skip a fun evening trip downtown in order to catch up on work stuff.  

2. Time management is the name of the game.  It’s essential that you be good at time management if you’re going to try to work from home. When you’re working from home, you’re either your own boss…or your boss is pretty far away. At the office, your boss could pop in at any moment which keeps you from getting side tracked by Pinterest or spending too long on the phone with a friend.  At home, the boss isn’t checking up on you. You have to keep yourself in line. I’m usually pretty good at it. However, one “please watch me mommy” from the big brown eyes and pouty lips of my two year old and I’m toast. 

It’s awesome that I can look over at him playing on the floor and see his latest creations, witness all the new things he’s making, and hear his silly knock-knock jokes….but I have to be diligent and return to my work. I can’t just get down there on the floor with him and forget my responsibilities. 

3. Balance. We working moms stress a lot about trying to find and keep a balance between work and home. When you work from home, the lines can get pretty blurry sometimes. It’s a little bit easier to keep work and home separate if you’re working in an office and you can sort of block off those 40 hours and leave them at the office. If your office is a room in your house, it means you can’t really keep the two separate all the time. The benefit is that if my kids are sick, I can take care of them without repercussion. However, I’ll probably have to make up for the lost productivity by working on a Saturday instead of having family time with my kids and husband. 

Working from home isn’t for everyone. It’s really not the same as just being a stay at home mom. There are a lot of trade-offs, but the benefits are pretty great. Are you working from home? What advice would you give to a mom considering working from home instead of working outside the home? 

Written by: Sara Parise