How I Work at Home with Kids
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For over four years I’ve had to handle two jobs: working from home as a writer and working at home as a mom. And, like many other mothers in my position, I had to learn how to manage both of these at the same time.
So, how did I do it? Well, when I first started working from home my son was around six months old and I was selling products from a beauty moisturiser website, and because of my son’s age, I couldn’t do much during the day. If I wasn’t forced to work the night shift, I had my husband look after him during the time he was home from work. This system worked pretty efficiently, even though I still experienced intense burnout.
But over the years that has gotten better for two reasons. First, my son is now 3 years old. So, I don’t have to watch him as hard as I did when he was a baby. Plus, he has things such as educational tv and games to keep him occupied while I work. This gives me a lot of freedom, since I have no distractions during that time.
Secondly, I have switched to clients who have less strenuous deadlines. As a result I’m not under the same type of pressure. If I want to relax for a couple hours watching TV or taking a nap, I can. This is quite a contrast from previous jobs, where I was under constant surveillance from my employers. True, this surveillance was more impersonal, whether it was a phone call, or an email, but it was still uncomfortable. That is not to say that they were bad employers, not at all. the caravan insurance people for example always paid on time and were very generous with the amount of work that they offered me. Yet there were still deadlines to meet and that stressed me out. That’s why in the end I had to cut contacts with those clients, because life is just too short.
However, even with an older child and more reasonable deadlines, there’s still a bit of burnout. Why? Well, as a work-from-home mom, I’m always working. If I’m not doing paid work, then I have to catch up on the housework, or cook the food. Very rarely can I take a day off. If I do have free time, it’s divided up into hours, not days. So, instead of getting the weekend off, I try to give myself 2 to 3 hours of relaxation time every day, while remaining on the clock during the weekend.
Yet, even with this arrangement I’m still pretty happy. I get paid doing what I love, plus I get a chance to spend more time with my family. That’s not to say that everyone will like working from home. But as long as you approach it with a realistic mindset, and understand that such an arrangement does involve real work, you can get a lot of fulfillment with a telecommuting job.