One thing that work at home parents may not think about very often is the example that they set for their children. Whether you have started your own home – based business or you have a job where you work from home, your children are learning from your example. This is a very good thing.
I grew up in a home where my dad worked outside of the home and my mom stayed home to raise my sister and I. As a child, I certainly enjoyed having a parent taking care of me at home. As I grew older, I realized that not every child had a stay at home parent. Some kids had two parents that worked, and they either went to day care or were cared for by grandparents or other relatives. Both of these things taught me that each family has a choice to make regarding whether one or both parents will work and if both parents work, who would take care of the children. I did not know anyone whose parents worked from home, so that was not really something that I was aware of at the time.
When I got older, I learned about people who ran their own businesses. I always thought that that was rather interesting. As a young adult, I realized that going into business for oneself created another option as far as the choices that a family could have regarding combining careers and family life. While I was in law school, I realized that I did not want to go to work at someone else’s law firm – I wanted to start my own. By some strange twist of luck, I set out on a path towards owning my own business and preserving that option for myself.
Now that I am a stay at home, work at home mom, I have to remind myself that what I am doing is important for more reasons than the ones that are readily apparent. My children will grow up knowing that parents have choices of where and when they work. My son is two years old, and he knows that Daddy goes bye – bye to work. He also knows that Mommy stays home with him. Since I do my work when he is sleeping, I am not sure that he knows all that much about what Mommy does on the computer while he is sleeping. I do occasionally have to go to court, and either my husband or my husband’s father watches our son while I am there. I tell him (as do they) that Mommy is going bye – bye to work, but since I do it so infrequently I am not sure whether he really thinks that I work or not. As he grows, he will learn that Mommy works from home. I am pleased that he will grow up understanding that adults have choices regarding when, where, and for whom they work in addition to being able to choose the type of work that they do.
Photo by alvimann on morguefile.com.