Working from home with very young children is enormously challenging and my hats go off to those parents who are able to do this. My children aged 10,12 and 14 are all at school so it is easier to manage but there are still particular challenges when attempting to run a professional home office and parenting at the same time. So here is a list of suggestions to make everyone’s lives easier.
1. Have set office hours. If they can co-ordinate with school hours, so much the better. Make it clear to clients that they must not call outside of office hours except in an emergency - be clear what you consider an emergency and have a penalty for clients who do not follow your policies. Have a similar agreement with your children so they do not disturb you during office hours.
2. Have a system in place so that you can react quickly in the case of an emergency. When you make an appointment, make sure you have full contact details of a person you can contact to reschedule. Consider working with a virtual assistant who could handle this for you.
3. Remember to schedule breaks into your day. It is very easy to get burned out so make sure you have some time each day to kick back and relax - do not just have breaks to do housework!
4. Have a plan to cover vacations and snow days. Be realistic about how much you can actually get done when the children are around and consider either hiring a babysitter or even closing your office during school vacations. Be reasonable with your requests of your children when you are supposed to be working.
5. It can be very lonely working from home but luckily the internet can connect you with people from all over the world! There are chat rooms, Skype rooms, Yahoo groups, social networking sites and so on. Just be careful not to spend all your time networking instead of working!
6. Set boundaries. Sometimes other people equate the fact with you working at home as you being available any time. So if your child’s teacher is requesting you chaperon for the third time that semester you do not have to say yes! Your time is valuable and you have to balance outside activities.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Stacey Derbinshire // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Stacey Derbinshire
Stacey Derbinshire’s last blog post..Make $150 Dollars An Hour - Start A Pressure Washing Business
2 Working at Home on the Internet // Mar 7, 2008 at 4:15 pm
[...] Reschke presents Challenges and solutions for work at home parents. posted at Passions That [...]
3 Mothers in Business Carnival- March | Beauty Banquet // Mar 15, 2008 at 1:40 am
[...] Reschke presents Challenges and solutions for work at home parents. posted at Passions That [...]
4 Merlyn Sanchez // Apr 2, 2008 at 4:37 am
This is a great post! My son is 15 now, so it’s a lot different than when I started working at home and he was only 8! Now, my elderly father lives with us and that adds a whole other set of issues!
Merlyn Sanchez’s last blog post..SMART Business Owners Invest in Their Education
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