Elizabeth at Chronicles of a Mompreneur has a great post on the Top 7 Myths About Work At Home Moms. Elizabeth's list includes such myths as "we all work in our underwear" and "we are not 'real' business owners."
I've heard it all before.
For many people, I think, the work-at-home mom is a mythical creature who somehow magically manages to effortlessly and simultaneously produce income while getting every household chore done to perfection and entertaining the kids. 
I have a friend who calls me nearly every day and asks the same question, "what are you doing?"
Now, I've worked at home for five years. You'd think by now the fact that I'm working wouldn't be a surprise, right? I'm at home. I do work here.
When I tell people that I work from home the response that I get is sometimes akin to that eyes-glazed over "deer-in-the-headlights look" that I might get if I announced that I was moving to Tibet or to the North Pole.
The truth is that working at home is very different from just taking work home from the office. When you just take work home from the office, you're doing work that someone else assigned you. Often taking the work home is optional -- you're just trying to get ahead of your projects by taking it home. When you finish the work, someone else will give you more.
When you work-at-home you're working on a project from a client that you went out and found, a client that you took the trouble to build a relationship with. You don't have an office to go to. When you finish the work you may have to go out and find another client to give you more work.
Because you're at home even people close to you tend to think that you can somehow squeeze more time into your day. You'll be asked to run errands, volunteer for projects, and socialize.
The fact is that if it takes eight hours to edit a document sitting in a cubicle, it's going to take about eight hours to edit that document sitting at home. The amount of work does not magically decrease.
Don't get me wrong. I do run errands when necessary. I do volunteer for projects when I think it's worthwhile. I do go out to lunch with friends occasionally. It's just that I'm asked to do these things much more often now that I'm at home every day.
What about you? How do you think work-at-home moms are perceived? Do you have a myth about working at home that you'd like to share? Leave a comment and let me know.
Isn't it amazing how people think we are doing nothing? I even have this from my husband, who really does not understand why I don't get the dishes or errands done during the day. I actually think I had more time to get that stuff done when I was working, because I had fixed lunch and break times during the day.
Thanks for reading my post, and linking from your blog!
Elizabeth
Posted by: Elizabeth Potts Weinstein | August 24, 2007 10:18 AM | Permalink to Comment