[melissel]

This thread is geared toward supporting those of us who may work at more corporate-type jobs, or jobs where the bulk of our work must be done during the day, yet we simultaneously care for our families ourselves, either without childcare or with limited childcare. There are unique advantages and disadvantage in this sort of arrangement, and many of us feel that we are straddling the worlds of both SAHMs and WOHMs, sometimes to the benefit of everyone but ourselves!

That said, I know some posters don't share QUITE the same situation, yet feel they share the same issues. Feel free to post here, please! Also, if anyone has a better suggestion for the tribe name, let me know and I'll amend it. I hope this turns out to be a good thing for everyone!

We're struggling with a few things right now ourselves, so I'll be back shortly to post my own stuff

 

[tangozulu]

Sub'ing - but gotta get some work done while dd13 is watching the younger ones

 

[pageta]

I think WAHM would cover it for the title.

I am sure there are some of us who use childcare and some of us who don't. This is an issue I really struggle with. I mean, the whole reason why I am a WAHM is so that I'm caring for my children, not someone else. At the same time, I need to get some work done. Some of my work can be done in the evenings, but time management - aka getting things done while being a SAHM - is a huge issue for me. I would love to hear other perspectives on this.

 

[MomInFlux]

Great idea!

I like your tribe title - it's very inclusive. "WAHM" as a Tribe title wouldn't really be applicable to me. I'm not a SAHM who also works, I'm a WOHM who does her corporate job at home. I'm the full-time employee in my family, and my DH is a SAHD. I could not possibly work my job and care for my children independently - and my company makes it very clear that working from home is NOT a substitute for child care. I feel like I'm in an incredibly unique and lucky position - DH and I are both home full-time with our children. Mostly, I'm in my office with the door closed, but I'm available to help DH if he needs it or a child needs a smooch or to nurse.

 

[pageta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MomInFlux Great idea! I like your tribe title - it's very inclusive. "WAHM" as a Tribe title wouldn't really be applicable to me. I'm not a SAHM who also works, I'm a WOHM who does her corporate job at home. I'm the full-time employee in my family, and my DH is a SAHD. I could not possibly work my job and care for my children independently - and my company makes it very clear that working from home is NOT a substitute for child care. I feel like I'm in an incredibly unique and lucky position - DH and I are both home full-time with our children. Mostly, I'm in my office with the door closed, but I'm available to help DH if he needs it or a child needs a smooch or to nurse.

In my book, you're a WAHM - you're working at home. I worked at home for my former company and considered myself a WAHM during that time. The difference between WAHM and WOHM is whether you go somewhere to go to work or whether or stay at home - not who employs you (self or someone else). Just my take...

 

[jayb842]

Hi,

I'm part of this tribe. I work part time for Educate Online ( aka Sylvan Online). I'm a teacher, sub and recuiter for them. As fall gets going I'll average 20 hours a week. We don't do child care. I work with ds with me all the time. Dh doesn't help right now. He has a very stressful job so I don't believe he needs to came home to take of ds. So I'm done working when he gets home most of the time. He might have ds for a hour. I work during nap time and two hours of time when he is playing outside or watching a movie.

Jay

 

[Herausgeber]

I'm 6 months pregnant with my first, and work about half of my hours at my full-time job from home. I'll more or less keep that schedule after I return from three months of mat leave. My work is on a daily deadline, so I can't just sneak work in while the kiddo is napping. I've cared for my nephews as babies while working at the same time and it just flat wore me out, even just for a few days at a time. DP also works from home a good chunk of the week. Our plan is to have someone care for DD here at home while we work, but we'll also be around, which should also make nursing easier.

 

[Benjismom]

I think I qualify. I do freelance work, work part-time for a research firm and sometimes teach in law school. Except for when I'm teaching and occasionally use an office at school to meet with students, I work exclusively from home. I end up doing a lot of work at odd hours so I can be with my kids in the afternoon, so I definitely feel pulled in a million directions. But so far I'm keeping it together. This fall, I'll be commuting to Boston staying overnight one night a week for eight weeks for a teaching job. I'm worried the wheels will come off entirely but I'm crossing my fingers!

Beth
DS (6-1/2); DD (3-1/2)

 

[P'sMom]

Melissa, thanks for starting this group--very cool.

I went back to the corp world in the office after DD was born, while DH was doing grad school work and able to take care of DD when she was 5 1/2 months old. She never really took a bottle and I was lucky enough to work nearby, so we ended up doing a daily lunch meeting for nursing! It was great and my company flexed (for them!) a bit on hours with some work from home, but it was a workaholic environment and I couldn't do that once DD came long.

So, I was lucky enough to get another corp job supporting a region. Although I have an office at a local site, most employees I support are not on-site, but spread across the west. I go to the office for a few hours every week, but I am primarily home-based now, and I love it! But, it definitely presents its challenges with a little one around.

My DH is home too, primarily taking care of DD.

MomInFlux, where are you? I am in San Diego.

Anyhow, thanks for starting the tribe!

 

[tangozulu]

Good morning.

I thought this group would enjoy this article. It talks about the pros and cons of email communication. I agree with its findings, which were that even a brief phone conversation followed by email communication goes better than email only. I will go further to say that meeting a client in person, at least initially, makes for better rapport in the long term.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0515/p13s01-stct.html

I am a WAH software/web developer. I have been doing consulting only for a year (have always done side projects throughout my career

). Prior to that, I was a FT employee for about 5 years but WAH almost FT - after my ds was born, I was only in the office about 4 times. I also cared for ds during that time (9 mo.) without any childcare (I don't recommend it!!). I have also WAH pt and ft since my dd6.5 was born (no childcare on my WAH days - I also did consulting primarily from home her first year).

More recently, sometimes I do without childcare and sometimes I need it. It depends how busy I am. I had scaled back this summer to spend time with the kids, but now have two projects on my plate, but since my dd13 is off school, I can hire her (as you can imagine, this has its pros and cons). Previously I have used a daycare for 2-3 mornings/week for about 3 hours at a time. Sometimes that seemed like too much care, other times not enough. Not sure what I will do in the fall for now. I have considered putting ds back in the daycare PT, especially with a new little one on the way in Dec.

 

[siobhang]

I call myself a WAHM - I have 45 hours of childcare a week and I run my own company out of my house. I did work for two months without childcare (and will hae a week without next week - ugh!) and it didn't work for me. But I love working from home because I get to have lunch with my kids every day - and I can nurse on demand.

Thanks for starting this tribe!

 

[rebeccalizzie]

Thanks for the tribe! Right now I'm working from home about 25 hours a week doing my regular WOH accounting job. I may be continuing this way after baby is born, but I'm going to either need to work while DH is home or get child care--I really can't get my job done while parenting. Even just parenting the 10 year old is a bit much sometimes--I feel like I'm always telling her "I'm working" and she fends for herself a lot as a result

I like it in some ways, but I also feel like I need to "prove" I'm working the hours I say I am. I send emails to clarify small issues that I could probably wait an hour or two on, and instead of holding a batch of things to be sent out I'll send them as I do them. I also respond to questions immediately if possible. I want to be seen as "totally on the job" the whole time I'm officially working. My mom is a great resource, she has an employee that works at home two days a week and everyone knows she doesn't actually work half that time. So Mom gives me tips on how to show that they can depend on me.

 

[pageta]

I think if you're "on the clock" it's essential to have childcare because an hour of work without disruption is completely different than an hour of work while watching kids. When I worked at home for my former company the year after ds was born, I think they got much more per hour out of me. I mean, every time I got up to go to the bathroom I did something with ds as well so I would just clock out so they only paid me for the time I was really working. When I was going to the office every day, I wasn't so intense about being productive every second.

Now that I work for myself, I divide my tasks between those that can be done while supervising children (aka at half speed) and those that require 100% of my attention. I try to do the latter when dh is home. I hate to hire a sitter in order to do the former, but then sometimes I think I would be further along. It's just that the children-ok tasks are not directly tied to my income but are still necessary (filling orders, maintaining inventory, etc.). I can show $/hr with the non-children tasks so it's easier to justify paying for childcare if I need to.

 

[AmyY]

Subbing too.

I teach voice lessons at home and am working on expanding my studio. So far I teach with my girls on my lap or in the room with me (depending on their security level) and I just make that understood to my students and their parents up front. I am, in return, flexible about their absences, welcoming of homeschool families with many littles running about the house during older sibling's lesson, etc. I am at a point right now where I want to expand and see how much I can do before I have to consider getting childcare help - I haven't tested the boundaries of that since the girls have gotten a bit older.

Thanks for this group - I know I'm not working for an outside company but this tribe fits more what I feel myself to be than anything else I've seen on MDC so hope you don't mind me hangin' out here!

:

 

[tangozulu]

I am having one of those days where I am being constantly interrupted, cannot concentrate, cannot get in "the zone" to get my work done, and was just asked by a client when they can see a working version of what I am TRYING to work on. I just yelled at my dd13 to take the younger ones to the playground for the 500th time today. It is GORGEOUS outside and they are sitting playing video games...while ds "watches" - real great. I just cannot take it right now, and I know that if I complain to DH he will say that I don't have to work, anyway. I guess this is what I get for having a banner day yesterday where everything went right...!!!!

:

:

ETA: dd13 is the hired, paid babysitter by choice - I was glad to get someone else, but she wanted the opportunity - so please no slams about that!

 

[Jessy1019]

I'm a WAHM, doing about 30 hours a week (or less, but at least 25) as a sex writer/SEO assistant/blogger for Discountclick.com/AshleySexToys.com. I go into the office one day a week, for five hours. My son comes with, and my daughter stays with my mom. I also work a few hours a week at my mom's so that she can keep the kids busy while I get a chunk of work done. I also work in the evenings when dd would rather hang out with her dad anyway.

In an ideal world, I wouldn't work at all. I like being a SAHM and that's the only job I really WANT to do. However, since working helps us out immensely from a financial point of view I'm happy to have the job I have. I have a totally flexible schedule and I know I could never find another job that affords me this much freedom.

 

[aran]

Hi - subbing - should be working but I'm procrastinating (I would love to make that a topic on this thread, if anyone else ever has that issue... )

I am an environmental risk assessor working at a 70-person consulting firm. I work 20-30 hours/week from home and have childcare the whole time I work. DS (2) hangs out with a nanny here at home (or on frequent "field trips") while I work. I tried squeezing in 8 of my hours a week with no childcare, but it was impossible. I have client calls that cannot be interrupted, and sometimes last several hours so childcare is a must. On the other hand, I have been known to mute my line and nurse DS to sleep while in a boring conference call! It's great when I can be mommy and bill hours at the same time

When deadlines are hectic I work evenings/weekends and DH takes care of DS, but I hate hate hate that. We like out "all together as a family time" best!

 

[siobhang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aran Hi - subbing - should be working but I'm procrastinating (I would love to make that a topic on this thread, if anyone else ever has that issue... )

heh that is why I am reading MDC. Email alerts to subbed threads is EVIL.

I hear you about the importance of keeping family time sacred. My general rule is no childcare = no work. I find it very hard on my kids to work while looking after them. I can always do non-paid work (like gardening, making dinner, etc) if there is stuff I have to do, but I'd rather hang out with them.

Siobhan

 

[MomInFlux]

Ug. I just put in a 73 hour week, worked today, will work tomorrow, and will work 10-12 hour days next week M-Th. So I'll have worked 18 days in a row. I'm leaving for vacation on Friday and I have deliverables due. And my job is such that there isn't anyone else who can step in. My job responsibilities are my own, and my clients don't care that I need a vacation. Thank heavens for a wonderful DH who is doing the kid thing nearly solo. He's a really good hands-on dad, but like all SAHP, he needs a break, and hasn't really been able to get one. I shudder to think how awful this past week would have been if I had had to commute to work and do the whole clean up, put on business clothes, drive to the office thing. Working at home, I can be smelly and disheveled and start working at 6:30 in the morning and work through dinner, but put the kids to bed and be back in my office working 'til 11:00

 

[green betty]

I'm about to start working about 25 hours a week, mostly from home (just as soon as we sell the house, move from coast to coast, and find quality childcare... eep!) Dp works from home too and we think we can swing that and unschool without childcare when ds is older, but while he's still a toddler I think I have to replace most if not all of my work hours with child care hours. I'm nervous about childcare... but also champing at the bit to get back to work.