Getting Kids and working at home to Mix

For parents, working at home can be an ideal situation.  Your career doesn't have to go on hold, and your children benefit by having mom and/or dad at home with them.  With the high cost of quality childcare and the ease of working and communicating via Internet, phone, fax and VOIP, staying at home to work is an easy choice to make.  But, it is still necessary to do some pre-planning and rule setting so that you can successfully mix your parenting job with your job. 

The age of your children will dictate a lot of how you handle your work at home situation.  If your kids are school age, you will automatically have a daily break of about 6 hours during the school year.  This break, of course, is going to probably be your main time for scheduling work, especially if you will be making phone calls, joining conference calls, or you must go to the office for a meeting. 

The school year brings its own set of parental responsibilities that you will need to remember to schedule your work around.  Children often need to be transported to practices, after school lessons, and sports events.  Try to find other trusted parents who may be willing to take turns with you taking your kids (and theirs) here and there.  Or try to schedule your children's activities to coincide with each other if possible, so that you can streamline your kid related travels.

If your children are younger than school age, they will be with you all day, each and every day.  Be sure that any virtual job you commit yourself to is doable under these circumstances.  Can you do your work after the kids are tucked in for the night, or first thing in the morning before they wake?  Are you able to work part time so that the kids are still first and foremost?  You might consider hiring daycare or a nanny for even one or two days a week so that you can spend some concentrated time on the job.

If your kids are old enough to follow simple rules, it might be good to establish some basic parameters such as:
When mom is working on the computer, please do not interrupt her unless you have an emergency (make sure to describe an emergency).

Likewise, you may want to come up with some rules for yourself, such as:
When the kids are at home with me, I will limit my time on the computer so that I can spend quality time with them.

One of the most attractive benefits to working at home is the ability to really get into being a parent.  That's great!  As long as you have done your homework and considered scheduling and ground rules, both you and your children will benefit from your work at home career.

Posted:Tuesday, August 07, 2007