Alone Time and the lack of a warning label

While I agree that many people think working from home is an ideal situation I also know many others who work outside the home to have an escape from the kids and the nagging spouse. Basically what I think this boils down to is a person's need for "alone time." If you work from home and have kids you won't get much "alone time." I think the optimal solution here is to arrange with your spouse/nanny/babysitter/parent one or two days a week where the kids will be somewhere else.

Working during the odd hours such as "early in the morning, around nap times, and late at night" should have been preceded with the label "WARNING! Do not try this at home!" This only leads to distracted, sleepy or pressured ("I've gotta' hurry up and get this done before the baby wakes up") work environments which will in turn make you grumpy and less able to deal effectively with your kids and spouse during non-work hours (I've lived through these effects and would not recommend it). Additionally, hiding in the office with the door barricaded shut will only cause your kids to resent your work time which in turn makes it harder to quickly jump on the computer to send an email when they are around.

Instead I think this should be handled from a managerial point of view. Assign the kids tasks to work on while you work. Make them feel needed and helpful and most importantly pay attention to them as much as possible as they help. This will be a really difficult task at first and especially so if your kids aren't old enough to follow directions well but will pay off immensely as the kids realize that you being on the computer is not a bad thing.

--

Jason (who spent many days as a child in his dad's office having to keep himself entertained using only a pencil and a post-it pad)

Working From Home with Toddlers

Everyone seems to think that working from home is the ideal working solution. I certainly did and when I started my career as a freelance designer, it seemed like I'd hit the jackpot! I could schedule my own hours, work from virtually any place with my trusty laptop, and even be productive from my couch or bedroom. Then I had children.

Raising small children and working from home seem to be goals at odds with one another. At least, it certainly has for me. Now, instead of looking forward to drinking a cup of coffee while I breeze in and out of my home office and work on projects, I hide in my office with the door barricaded shut while my babysitter entertains my children outside in the living room. I certainly love my children (ages 2.5 and 16 months) and wouldn't trade staying home with them for anything. But my work productivity has plummeted since they've started walking. Now, I sneak in odd work hours early in the morning, around nap times, and late at night after bed time.

After some exhausted months of working nights to meet design deadlines, I went online looking for some solutions or tips to working at home with small children. I found plenty of articles that involved working around naptime and setting up a separate desk area for your child to work and play next to you. But clearly, these tips were designed for workers who had only one toddler. But what about the poor souls who have two toddlers? And one of those toddlers doesn't take naps!

So, enter the search for a nice babysitter who can entertain them while I work secretively and quickly from the seclusion of my home office. My babysitter is great and fun and the kids love her. Unfortunately, she's thirteen and will be back at school in a few days and my summer days of working freely are gone. What will I do then?

I think that I will try to find a college intern to work as my assistant. I might still use my babysitter to help out after school so that I can squeeze in a couple hours during the day. But I resign myself to working in the evenings and at night for now. And as if I don't torture myself enough, we're expecting baby #3 in December! Ha! It never ends.