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| A girl needs her gadgets |
Lots of Mums find the solution for paid work, when you have young kids, is to find a job that allows you to work from home.
It can be perfect, no creche fees for a start means you really do earn some money to help with the bills. You don't need to get dressed for work, you are still the main caregiver for your children, never having to call in when winter ear infection season arrives and you're getting frequent flyer points at the local doctor.
Working from home allows you to work, look after the kids, organise tea, clean the house, get to swimming lessons and clean the car all in the same day.
Kind of.
Working from home can make you more stressed than in the office. If you need to make calls or return an email you can be sure your little cherub will need you for a nappy change, a face wipe, or rescuing from the latest peice of furniture they have learnt to climb.
Working from home for a few hours, you can find yourself working all hours of the night to catch up.
Do I have the answer? Kind of.
My latest job requires me to work a day from home, over the week. Pretty much two hours a day, three days a week and a check in on weekends. I am finding the first important aspect is the gadgets. I have myself armed with any gadget I can get my hands on, and while I am still searching for the perfect bag to tramp around with them all, each and everyone is essential. Allowing you to whip out an email reply while watching a swimming lesson. Send a tweet on the treadmill? No sweat. Watch Gruffalo and review blog comments, done.
What else helps?
Finding a routine that means you are totally with your children and away from those gadgets when you're not working. Exhausting the girls until lunch time means that they have a good rest time for an hour after lunch.
Then it's screen time. For me, for them.
And then back to this, which is why working IN the office can be such a good thing too.
Do you manage work in and out of the office? Share your tips.
For almost three years, my office has been in my home - literally in my lounge room. It's only this year that my youngest has gone to school so I hear you on the juggle and gadgets bit. But having done it the other way with my elder two kids, I wouldn't go back. Yes, I might do some really late nights but the flexibility is worth it. Just this week, Mr 5 has been really sick and off school for 4 days - I didn't have to stress about how I was going to cover that with an employer.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing what you can achieve in those few snatched minutes. I remember it all too well. c
ReplyDeletego girl, we do what we have to do to get by.
ReplyDeleteLove this post too. (You do write about such interesting things!) I've been wanting to post about this very thing as I'm a WAHM too.
ReplyDeleteI find that mostly it's the best of both worlds but does have it's problems too. I've been doing it for four years now. Easy with one, harder with two. Last year I spent most of my mornings from 5:30am - 8:30am doing my office work.
My eldest has just started kinder and it's a blessing because now I put the baby down while I work for three hours. Bliss! And I get a sleep in too. It's getting easier from here on in now...
But more about it when I post about this very thing.
All the best as you juggle. Because that's what it is. And lots of discipline! xx
I love my work at home, being my own boos, setting my own hours. I'm retired and don't have children and all the family responsibilities. My dh is pretty independent.
ReplyDeleteDownside, it's rare that I make any money, but boy do I take time for myself to love and be loved.