Work at Home Mom Overload!

Hmmmm... Something tells me you are Quinn who was just here fishing for information in an unethical manner.

In any case, I would not hire you to work for me and work from home if you had a child at home. You can't be productive for me if you are busy with a little one. The only way I would allow an employee to work from home is if they had OUTSIDE child care and had demonstrated self discipline and were ethical.

Working at home is just like working at the office without the commute.
When you are working - you need child care.
No one is going to pay you to watch your own kids.
Get a baby sitter or put your child(ren) into day care.
Then they can have fun playing with other kids while you are getting your work done.

I have two friends that run their own business. They do a lot of their prep work, etc. on Sunday morning. Hubby has kids, she works. Can you work a few hours on Sunday morning and let hubby take over child care? My other suggestion would be to get up an hour early every morning.

How old is your child? My work is often end-product driven, not driven by the hour. What that means is that for me is that it doesn't matter when I get my work done, as long as I meet my deadline with the end product. That gives me a lot of flexibility.

I prefer to go to the office, because I'm more productive, but if school is cancelled for some reason (weather, an in-service day, etc), and I have essential work to do, I do it from hom. I set up a plan with my son in the morning. It goes something like this:

I need to work for 45 minutes. If you can play by yourself for that time without interrupting me, then I will play whatever you want for 30 min. Then I will need to work again for another 45 min. etc all day.

The exact schedule depends on what I need to accomplish, and how long I need my work blocks to be. And, my son is in elementary, so he understand dealmaking :) If your son is younger, this might be more difficult and you might need to hire a mother's helper.

Hello! I also work from home. The way I handle it is I do it when my son is at school and my daughter is at preschool. Before she was in preschool I hired a babysitter (nanny?) for part time to take her out and do fun things while I get something done in the morning. I do sometimes work now in the afternoon when my daughter is home and it usually works out just fine. I get her busy doing an art project or watching a move and then I can get about an hour of work done.

I have regular office hours M-F 8 am to 4:30 pm. My children are in full time daycare or at school during this time period.

How old is he?
Can you do extra work like paperwork at night after he goes to bed?
Can you get anything done before he rises?
How about doing work in spurts when possible? Work for 30 mins, spend
a little time with him, bk to work.
Not sure how old he is so don't know if this will work but have him watch a
30 min video or cartoon so you can get uninterrupted work-time.
Can he play cars at the kitchen table while you get some things done?
I like the idea of hiring a babysitter for a few hrs a day to come to your
house.
Try not to feel guilty. You are only human doing the best you can!
Give yourself breaks. Maybe you could take 15 mins to play w/your son,
then get him started on a task then go do your work.
Be sure to give yourself a break!

We're mom's. We're not stupid.

You use childcare (nanny or daycare) or you work when your child is in school and after they go to bed/before they wake up. You cannot be fair to your job or to your child trying to handle them both at the same time.

You send your child to day care so you can get your work done then when you are finished for the day you go get him and have the rest of the day. Kids don't need a parents complete attention either. If he can walk and talk he can entertain himself for at least a little while each hour. If he's older he can do more time alone playing with his toys.

How do you balance? You work when your child is in school. If he isn't of school age then you put then in daycare or have a mother's helper come in to watch him while you work. Or you work before he gets up in the morning, while he naps, and after he goes to bed.

Working from home isn't a replacement for child care. If you try to make it so then you'll be both badly.

you get someone to watch your child while you're working.
that's it.
khairete
S.

Pretty impossible to care for an "energetic" little O. AND work from home.
Child care!

Hypnotherapist and hypnobirthing therapist and birth doula, hm? Very interesting stuff! You must really love mamas and babies! I imagine it's a very rewarding career.

That said, I would balance the work-at-home part of your life by utilizing some type of childcare for your energetic son. It doesn't have to be an all day thing, but it should be during the time you most need to work, and when your son will be best suited to being away from the house. Perhaps a morning away with a nanny to the park, some classes, or the museum, and then brought back home after lunch for naptime. That would give you until after nap to work with few interruptions, and the afternoon to spend with your son.

Best of luck to you!

We divide our work from our family - we keep specific hours, have an assigned work space and hours, and those with young children have some form of child care. When we are wearing one hat, we don't try to wear the other. Organization, compartmentalization, specialization.

How about a mother's helper? That's not as expensive as a babysitter. I wouldn't do that if you're making phone calls, but it would work for getting your classes prepared.

It's hard. Some jobs require a babysitter. Some you can do in spurts. Some you can't do til the kid is asleep. In the summer, I try to take long lunches so that my DD gets out for a bit during the day. If you already have a great sitter, I would think about how much time you need for paperwork and then hire her for those hours.