Six Tips for Work at Home Families, Part I

I often get asked how I manage my job, my home, my business, and my children from day to day. Usually the question is followed by nervous laughter and the phrase, “we just do what we have to do…” but is that really the case? It seems from day to day, more and more people are enthralled with the idea that I actually work from home, approximately 40 hours a week – and I still seem to be raising well adjusted, normal and above all – polite – children.
I’ve decided I needed to dig into what we are doing differently than most other work at home families. How is it that we are still able to manage from day to day? I have come up with the following six reasons that I think contribute strongly to our family’s success.
1) Take a time out.
There are always going to be pressing deadlines at work, emails that need to be sent, and phone calls that need to be made. Our children are not going to be children forever. One cardinal rule at our house is that no matter what is going on – regardless of the deadlines or emails waiting for me – I always take at least one hour a day and dedicate it to my children. I know this doesn’t sound like much, but when you figure that I have three kids at home, all three who nap for approximately 3 hours (which is time I use to take care of those pressing business issues) taking one hour away from what I am doing to do what (and this is key) they want to do – really is not a large sacrifice. The emails will still be there when I get back, and the deadline will still be pressing – but my kids are happy, and they’ve had some time with their mom.
2) Enjoy one meal a day together as a family.
I have extremely active children. With one on a swim team, one in soccer, one in T-ball, two in dance and one taking piano lessons, our calendar is extremely full. There are days sometimes that we are running out the door with a granola bar in one hand and a juice box in the other on the way to the next event. However – we always make it a point to have one meal together as a family. It doesn’t have to be anything too spectacular – I’m not running a five star restaurant here – sometimes it’s Pizza from Little Caesars’. But, we always take time to eat together as a family. This is time where we are able to hear from our kids about their day at school, listen to the latest about Susie or Sally or whoever is new in the fourth grade, etc. This one hour a day is not interrupted by phone calls, emails, telephones or knocks at the door. It’s family time. Period.
3) One night a week is reserved for family fun.
That’s right, I said one entire night. Again, this doesn’t have to be spectacular. We’ve gone to the park, watched a television show, played a board game, put together a puzzle. Anything and everything that we can do as a family, we’ve done. We’ve even enjoyed rousing games of “duck, duck, goose”, and yes, we’ve had a day where we played a “cleaning game” to see who could get their room cleaned the fastest – and then rewarded all participants with ice cream. These simple, yet fun and rewarding nights are looked forward to with anticipation by our children, and as they grow – we are able to do more activities such as volleyball and half court basket ball. Our kids actually look forward to these nights, and plan their weeks around them.