The Best of Both Worlds

A lot of people (and by a lot of people, I mean - those who have never done it) think that working from home is easy. And why wouldn't they think that? I mean, when you work from home, you can stay in your pajamas all day. There's no sitting next to annoying people on the train who talk loudly on their cell phones to their boyfriends, calling them Schmoopsie-poo and refusing to hang up until they do. You don't have to battle rush-hour traffic. When you work from home, you don't have to make small talk with coworkers and kiss your boss's butt. You can take a break and watch Oprah if you want. You can get up and grab a snack from your fridge whenever you want. You can play your old 80s CDs and turn the volume as high as it'll go while dancing around in your underwear and no one will hand you a brochure on psychiatrists covered by your company's HMO.

Yes, it's true that working from home has many advantages. However, if you're a parent, working from home takes on a whole new meaning. On the one hand, it means you don't have to pay for daycare. You don't have to worry about your kids picking up every germ known to man while at daycare. You don't have to dread the call from the daycare that your child bit another child and is a menace to society and will probably end up on a clock tower some day.

But it’s not all sunshine and roses. When I worked at an office I almost never had to stop what I was doing to wipe a coworker's butt. I didn’t have to break up fights between coworkers about which is better, Wonder Pets or Little Einsteins, very often. Fellow employees didn't generally run through my cubicle, screaming. When I used to work in an office, no one ever threw a paper airplane at me, no one ever came to me with a Barbie shoe stuck up his nose, no one ever poured a cup of chocolate milk on my desk, and no one ever screamed for attention when the phone rang.

Now that I work from home, I’ve experienced all of the above and then some. It’s hard to keep your train of thought on track when you have little people who are constantly derailing it. Still, I get to spend time with my children while working. I get to make a living while watching my kids grow up. I can sit down and write and a minute later, get up and play a game with the kids.
True, working from home offers the worst of both worlds. But it also offers the best. It just depends on how you look at it. :) I try to look at it as the best of both worlds. If I wasn't able to work from home, I'd have missed out on this...

This morning, Brooklyn came to me and said, "I think my tummy is hungry."

She'd just eaten 3 cheesesticks so I answered her, "I think your tummy is full of cheese!"

She lifted her shirt up, looked at her stomach, threw her hands up in the air and said, "I don't see any cheese in my tummy!"

Then, a little later, Clay walked into the laundry room wearing this...


Yep, that's great. My little Ariel. I'm so proud.

After we dropped Clay at school (thankfully he'd changed), Brooklyn made a creation out of Legos for me. "Here you go, Mama. I made this toy for you. I Santa."

"You're Santa Claus, huh? Well, thank you for my toy. Should we comb your hair and make it pretty now, Brooklyn?"

She looked me like I was insane. With hands on hips, she spoke down to me. "Mama, I Santa Claus. Santa doesn't like piggytails."

I stand corrected.

Head on over to my review blog to see my latest giveaway from a work-at-home family.