(Guest Post: Sarah Short)
Work from home mothers all share pretty much the same issues; children, family, housework, space, organisation. Stay at home mothers have SO much stuff that pushes for space in their schedule that working mothers just don't have to deal with. Please don't misunderstand me, I have been both a working mother and a stay at home working mother and I completely understand the issues that both mothers face, however, the mother who works from home has a fairly unique set of issues.
Our own mothers are the worst at not taking our work from home seriously. When I worked from home, my mother called at any time and I just didn't feel that I could say to her "Mum, this is my time for working, can I get back to you". After all, I answered the phone didn't I? I found that people felt that they could drop in for coffee at any time, because I was home after all! I found this particularly frustrating when I had organised for my daughter to be in childcare for a couple of hours so that I could achieve a specific thing to do with work and then my time was taken up with well intentioned friends who would call in to see how I was.
I found that as a woman who worked from home I was asked to do things that no one would dream of asking a full time working mother to do; drop everything to pick up dry cleaning; prepare a culinary masterpiece for unexpected dinner guests; change the bed in the spare room because the in-laws are coming to stay etc. Stay at home mothers have this happen all the time.
Stay at home mothers who work from home need to make sure that they set boundaries, both on their time and their availability and that they absolutely stick to them. When other people cross them, kindly, but firmly, make the person aware that you are not available at the moment because you are working. It is even worth actually having a timetable that your nearest and dearest have access to. You need to be really firm and just don't answer the phone when it rings during work time and when your partner calls to ask you if you could just (insert whatever it is that your partner asks you to do) SAY NO!
Your family and friends just need to be taught the new routine. Perhaps you can schedule coffee time with friends into your week? You need to have a specific time for chores that happen out of the house and if something comes up unexpectedly ask yourself "if I was working in an office, with a boss a) would I have been asked to do this and b) would my boss think it is acceptable?" If the answer to either of these questions is NO, then don't do it!
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If you have found a seed of usefulness in this article, you might like to head over to http://www.fromthedeskofsarahshort.com for more hints, tip and ideas about how to work from home successfully. See you there! Sarah Short - The Business Woman's Coach |
