How children react to WAHMs

If I'm understanding your question, it's really the same problem for WOHM's. I work at home and dh works outside the home but my son asks us both "Why do you have to work?" or "Why do you have to go to work?" The first time he asked my dh said, "Because I have to make money." I would always throw in "And because we like to work" and try to explain all the things we needed the money for. I've never been 100% happy with this response but I don't know why. It's truthful, although I wouldn't be surprised if ds thinks we literally make money all day, like stamp out coins and print dollar bills.

I am really interested to see what others say. I've almost posted this question myself (if I'm understanding your question).

I think it is much harder for ds (13 months) if he knows I am at home. He has lots of separation anxiety for a few minutes after I leave. When he sees me off and on through the day, that problem is magnified. Frankly, he and I are both miserable. We are fortunate to have a room in the garage that I can use for home office work. I go down the same door I go through when I leave the house so all he knows is that I am "at work" and he doesn't have the constant tease of seeing me. My sitter will take him outside or to another room if I have to run upstairs for anything. I hope that as he gets older I can start to have some brief playtimes with him through the day and "go back to work" without such trauma for him. I think that it will be a very gradual transition for him to know that I am actually working at home. I didn't expect to have such rigid boundaries between "work" and "home" but at his developmental stage it seems the best solution. I do find, however, that it encourages me to be efficient about working a home so that I can leave the "office" to be with him sooner!

I work out of home, but recently, I had the opportunity to work from home as well. It didn't work out too well. I found that not only was I distracted by everything around me, but dd had a harder time when she knew I was in the house. I'd be in the basement office and hear her running around yelling for me. When I go to work, some days she waves goodbye to me and other days she is a little more clingy, like today. But, overall, she gets over it quickly and is excited when I come home. I'd like to work home more, but I need to discipline myself better. We have a babysitter that comes to our house. Dd really enjoys being with our babysitter's daughter. I'm the one who feels distracted. As far as explaining things to her, she's only 21 months, so she doesn't really understand it. I always feel, however, that when I am home and working, she might feel rejected because she doesn't understand why mommy runs to another room for a business call. But, when I'm not home, I don't have that kind of pressure and it's a moot point. I try to get home as early as possible on the days that I work and spend as much time with her as I can. Just my 2 cents!

Libby