The past few nights have been interesting, to say the least. My eleven month old son has been waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to get out of bed and play. I like to play with him, but of course, night time is when I do my work. My initial reaction was to be annoyed, because work is important to me.
Whether I was annoyed or not, I still had to attend to my son. As I played with him, I realized that he won’t be a baby forever. He does not wake up to play every night, so the interruption of my work and personal time is not a regular occurrence. Also, most of my work is on a fairly flexible schedule. If I get less done on some nights than on others, it is okay.
Tonight, my little guy is sleeping soundly. I am enjoying the fact that I am able to get work done, and I am enjoying my peaceful, quiet house. I know that last night probably won’t be the last time that my work time is interrupted by one or both of the boys. After thinking about it for a while, though, I am able to put those interruptions into perspective for what they are. They are moments during which I have to depart from my regular work schedule in order to be with my kids. The boys will not be this small forever. I will have more time to work as time goes on and they grow, because their needs will change. Right now, I am grateful that I have created a work situation where I have the freedom to attend to their needs, day or night, and work when I am able to.
If you are a parent of young children and you are thinking of working from home, try to make sure that while the kids are young, your work is flexible enough to allow you the freedom to care for them in the way that you want to. Home – based work helps many parents to balance work and family in a way that traditional jobs simply do not allow.
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