Basically, she's talking about the communication that every family with a work-at-home parent should have about what working from home means to the family, how important the home job is, and how much the family should invest in a home opportunity. If you're just now setting up a home business, you should read this post and apply the principles before you start.
One thing about Stephanie's post that really caught my eye was the subheading of "What About Housework?" Right under that she says, "Many work-at-home parents still try to do it all."
I think that a key to success in working at home is to realize that you can't do it all. You can't successfully do two things at once.
Using my own business as an example, I can't spend eight hours editing a document and during that exact same eight hours take the car to the shop and shampoo the carpets. It's one thing or the other, not both. Like any working parent, the work-at-home parent must choose which tasks get done and which do not.
One question to ask concerning housework is -- Is everyone in the family doing everything that they can possibly be doing to help? If the answer is no, then you need to re-examine your priorities and reassign tasks.
At a minimum, all but the very youngest children should be responsible for picking up after themselves. As the children get older, they can take on more responsibility. High school aged children should be able to plan and prepare a simple meal, for example.
At our house we starting telling the children at a very young age that this is a "working household and everyone in it has to work at something." For adults the working includes earning money to support the household. For children, the working is schoolwork and simple chores.
Trying to do it all can lead to burnout. Learning to delegate household tasks can be the key to work-at-home success.
What about you? Do you try to do it all or do you delegate?
Unfortunately, as a single mom, there's nobody much to split the work with! My kids are seven and under, so I don't get much help there, either. It's a little daunting to realize that although you can't do it all...you have to!
Posted by: Kathy | July 31, 2007 8:45 AM | Permalink to Comment