Throughout my entire pregnancy, the plan was for me to go back to work around the 8-week mark after delivering our son. He arrived and the countdown began. A few weeks before I was set to return; a job presented itself which allowed me to work from home. I count my blessings every day that I’ve been able to work from home and stay home with our son, but it doesn’t come without struggles and mom-guilt.
I’ve heard every opinion and thought regarding work-from-home-moms: What do you do all day? I could NEVER stay home with my kid all day. You’re so lucky you get to hang-out with your son all day, every day. For me, it’s a blessing, but it takes a routine and lots and lots of patience. My son is 4 and he doesn’t 100% grasp the concept that mom is working at home because dad goes off to work and is gone all day. So, they can’t be the same thing, right?
In the beginning, it was easy. My son slept most of the day giving me plenty of time to work, finish up chores, chat with my mom friends, check Facebook, and answer emails. Once he was walking and talking I tried to maintain my schedule of working as much as possible in the mornings, but the inevitable happened: my son wanted to hang out and interact with his mom. I found myself trying to juggle both. I would squeeze in texts, emails, and work whenever he was at a task. He’s a very talkative boy and asks a million toddler questions a day. I found myself growing frustrated and snapping at my son. I would be guilt-ridden and on edge the rest of the day trying to play catch up. Something had to give because I couldn’t look up from the laptop one more time to see his big blue eyes looking at me for answers to a question I hadn’t heard. I had never been big on a daily schedule (other than meals and naptime), but I needed help.
I sat down with my husband to come up with a game-plan. I made the decision to turn my phone on silent and haven’t turned the sound on since. This avoids the urge to immediately respond to texts or emails as soon as I hear the notification chime [I truly believe this has helped me maintain my sanity]. My husband agreed to divide and conquer the chores, and do fun father-son stuff, immediately following dinner to offer me a large amount of uninterrupted time to work. This allowed me to still have “me” time after our son went to bed. We’ve stuck to this routine for nearly 2-years and it’s taken the guess-work out of my day. I know I have the day to play, build forts, grocery shop, and run errands, the evenings to tackle work, answer emails and texts, and the late-night to catch up on a 95% full DVR. Because, let’s face it, no day is complete, without bad reality television before bed.
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