By Nina Sazer O'Donnell
Vice President, Families and Work Institute
Like many parents, you may dream of working at home. It will solve all your problems — no more traffic jams or mad rushes to the child care center, and you get to set your own schedule every day. What could be easier?
For the 7 percent of parents who work from home regularly and the additional 14 percent who do it occasionally, working at home is a good option when it comes to navigating a profession and raising young children. It does, however, require new and different ways of thinking. Can you really make that conference call during nap time? How do you choose between the pile of work and the pile of laundry when the kids are finally in bed? And how do you put both your kids and your job first?
Although working at home can be convenient and flexible, it brings unique challenges and requires unique solutions. Here are some of the ways that home-based working parents have successfully managed both work and family life:
- Arrange for child care. Even if you have help for only a few hours each day, you'll be much less stressed if you aren't trying to squeeze in calls and meetings while your kids are napping or watching TV. Kids and colleagues will be happier when they have your full attention, and you will feel less stressed when you can really focus.
- Establish a "going to work" routine. Even if your "office" is only at the bottom of the basement stairs, getting dressed and going someplace to work helps you shift into work mode. Anything that helps you switch roles can work, from taking a short walk and coming into the house through a different door to your desk to brewing a cup of tea or coffee and opening your e-mail at a specific time. These strategies not only help you make the transition from personal to professional life, but also help your family know when you're working.
- Make a work space that's your own. It can be hard for your family to understand that you're working and shouldn't be interrupted, especially if your "office" is the kitchen table. Having your own space — ideally with a door or partition that you can close — makes it easier for everyone to know when you're working.
- Make time that's just for work. Although a lucky few can place a conference call, pot plants, and sort laundry at the same time, this kind of multi-tasking is stressful for most of us. And managing an active preschooler can lead to unpredictable and distracting background noise when you're on the phone with your boss or a client. Set aside time that's just for work, with no distractions, day or night. Your employer and colleagues will appreciate knowing when they can count on your being available. And if you respect your work time, your family will too.
- Make time that's just for your kids. Just because you have specific work hours doesn't mean you have to ignore your children during the day. Setting up a schedule that allows you to take breaks and lunches with your children can actually rev up your creative juices, and knowing that they will have time with you helps little ones be patient when you need to work.
- When your child is sick, take a sick day. Sick children usually want and need attention. If you can't take the whole day off, give yourself some extra down time or try to renegotiate looming deadlines.
- Leave your work when you're done. Although it may be hard to resist checking your faxes or voice mail when you hear the phone ring during non-working hours, you'll drive yourself crazy if you don't. Turn off the ringer on your phone when your leave your desk.
- Be flexible and keep a sense of humor. Life is full of change and nothing is predictable. Think of life as jazz — you keep up with the chord changes and the rest is improvisation. Working at home isn't a panacea, but when you can laugh at the rough spots and come up with solutions to meet daily challenges, it can offer a great set of options for working families with young children.
Nina Sazer O'Donnell, M.Ed., serves as Vice President and Director of the Community-Life Team at Families and Work Institute. She directs community outreach for Families and Work Institute's Early Childhood Public Engagement Campaign, a national campaign to increase public awareness of the first three years of life. Ms. O'Donnell's writing and research have focused on early childhood policy, community mobilization and system development, public engagement, and public-private partnerships.
Families and Work Institute (www.familiesandwork.org) is a nonprofit center for research that provides data to inform decision-making on the changing workplace, changing family, and changing community. Founded in 1989, FWI is known for ahead of the curve, nonpartisan research into emerging work-life issues; for solutions-oriented studies addressing topics of vital importance to all sectors of society; and for fostering connections among workplaces, families, and communities. FWI's rigorous data are highly respected. Its research, which has influenced decisions across the nation, is sought out by business and community leaders, policy-makers, individual families, educators, and the media.
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