My Typical Day:
I get up sometime between 6:00-6:30 depending on what I need to accomplish in the morning {if I showered the night before and need to straighten my hair, if I haven't packed lunches, if I have any urgent work I need to get done ASAP, etc.}. I get the kids up between 6:45-7:00, make them breakfast, crack the whip to eat faster, help them get dressed, brush hair, teeth, grab lunches and bags and get in the car NO LATER than 7:45 to take everyone to school. Trent and Drew's drop-off is between 7:30-8:00 and Paige's is 8:00-8:15. I get home around 8:30 and work until 2:50 when I leave to go get the kids, Paige first and then the big 2. We get home about 3:45, and I attempt to work until 5:00 while juggling children, dinner prep, after-school chores, getting outside...you know just the typical afternoon craziness. After everyone is in bed, around 8:00-8:30 {depending on how much Harry Potter I get sucked into reading to Trent ha}, I will log back on for about an hour or so to catch up on what I missed during that last hour of craziness in the afternoon.
Why I Love Working From Home:
- First off, I have no commute and don't have to get ready! It's really nice to take the kids to school and not spend a minimum of 45 minutes getting to a client like I used to do when I was working in Audit. It also saves a lot of time not having to put on make-up, fix my hair, etc. every day. I do try and walk a balance of still wanting to look presentable, so I largely still put on real clothes and fix my hair after washing it, but it's way less work than when I do have to go to the office or something.
- I can do some household chores. It's nice to meal prep, do some laundry, vacuum a room or whatever else I need in little increments throughout the week.
- I can have sick kids home without too much disruption to my day, Paige excepted ha. I might have to reschedule a few calls or take a few hours of PTO, but I can largely get my work done even with a sick kid at home. Paige makes it a little more difficult given she can't entertain herself, but we're getting there!
- The kids don't have to go to after school care. Huge money saver that I'm able to pick them up every day after school and work in the evening {if necessary} to stay caught up.
Why Working From Home Isn't Perfect:
- Brent doesn't really consider that I work all day. He makes cracks about my job which is annoying but not that big of a deal. What's frustrating is the expectation that I handle a lot of the 'us' stuff since I'm home - just because I'm home doesn't mean I have free time!
- Kids being home can be highly annoying. When the kids are home - sick days, school holidays, summer break - it can be really disruptive and stressful. I get help where I can, but it's another thing to figure out.
- The childcare/arrangements are largely my responsibility. Similar to the previous point, since I'm home it makes sense that I handle it all, but Brent basically does nothing where the kids are involved during the day. I get 3 times the amount of vacation and have all the flexibility, but it's still annoying to be the one doing 90% of drop-off/pick-up/doctor appointments/school conferences, etc.
- I snack all day. My food issues can make it difficult to control my eating. It's too easy to pop over to Starbucks whenever I want or snack on whatever is in the house!
See? Overall it is a HUGE blessing to work from home, and I'm so thankful for the flexibility of my job. Would you like working from home?
6 comments:
You read 100 books last year. Working my ass
I mostly love working from home. My situation is a bit different because I'm not working full-time.
I love being able to get things done at home during the day, being able to work in my pajamas and the flexibility of when I get my work done (another part-time benefit).
I don't like the lack of co-worker interaction, not having clear boundaries between work and home, and the fact that ALL THE THINGS fall to me because I have more flexibility. Part of this is a "working from home" thing and part of this is a "part-time" thing. I still need to get some work done at some point.
My ideal situation was a few years ago when I could go into the office two or three days a week and work from home two or three days a week.
I can never decide if I'd like working from home. I think I would like the opportunity to work from home occasionally/when I want, but still have my office, haha. I think if I primarily worked from home, I would end up feeling/being really isolated. I'm not outgoing enough to initiate hanging out with friends a lot in the evenings/weekends (plus that's the only time I get with Matt and Millie, wherever I'm working), so I feel like if I were in the house all day I would see other people appx never. I mean...I'm introverted, but not THAT introverted. Hahaha. So I generally love work because I can see and talk to people if/when I want to, and then close my office door and not talk to people when I don't want to. :) But I do love the thought of being able to do small things at home throughout the day- move the laundry, unload the dishwasher, etc. And I think I would have the opposite snacking problem- there are always SO MANY TERRIBLE (delicious) snacks at my work, plus I work in the middle of downtown Athens where I'm surrounded by restaurants/coffee shops/temptation. But I live waaaay out of town, 20 minutes from a drive thru, and we usually don't keep good snacks at home, so I'd really have to work at it to get some mindless munching done at home!!
My sister started working from home and I'm pretty sure she stays in her pj's all day..ha! I know Jake would love for me to stay home with him all day..ha! I think I'd like it but I could see myself going to the gym for morning classes and running errands (less work..lol).
I love your honesty in this. I was really surprised at the 2:45 pickup. I guess I assumed your kids did after-care which most working parents around here do; does Montessori not offer or did you decide against it? On another note, one of my biggest concerns with being a SAHM was snacking all day, and overall it isn’t *as* bad as I feared because at work I would run to the vending machine (Doritos!) but at home I don’t buy that crap so my options are limited, usually leftovers, which calorically may be the same as Doritos, but at least have much more nutrition. Lastly, I hadn’t realized until reading your post that I’ve never considered WFH in my future. No reason to rule it out, but simply something I hadn’t considered. At first thought, it doesn’t appeal much to me and I’m not sure why. Is it my traditionalist tendencies? Perhaps I appreciate the office environment? I don’t know. It is growing drastically in popularity and, as you pointed out, comes with some huge benefits (laundry! Meal planning!)
PS: I never read other comments but today i glanced up and saw Brent’s comment and died laughing. That is something my husband would say. Men are such assholes lol.
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