Devoted to WAHMs -Work at Home Moms

As a work from home, I face distractions that many of my cubicle-dwelling  counterparts don’t have to put up with, for instance, the refrigerator (I work from my kitchen table), the back deck and the neighbors. My biggest distraction however, comes from my almost five-year-old son. Don’t get me wrong, he’s my priority, of course. I stay home so I can be with him. He’s an only child though and appreciates some attention now and then. We also have to contend with play dates, go to the park, and attend about 40 birthday parties each week. There’s no way I can work eight straight hours.

The key is time-management. Until my son is in school full-time, and that’s not until first grade, my days will be spent doing kids stuff. Instead, I look for blocks of time to work undistracted. That can mean waking at 4:00 AM and working until the guys wake at 7:00. (Yup, I do it.) It also means working at night for a few hours after my son goes to bed. I also get 2 ½ hours each day while preschool is in session. Eight hours, but three different blocks of time.

It’s tough to work with kids clamoring for attention and we can’t always count on them to keep themselves occupied. Instead, it’s up to us to find convenient times to work undisturbed. Sometimes those times aren’t during the conventional 9 to 5, but I never liked those hours anyway.