Working from home sounds like the ideal way to combine earning with juggling childcare and school demands, but is it all it's cracked up to be?
The idea of working from home is a pretty one. A calm, familiar space with no commute, no office cliques, no dress code and tea on tap, but as with many good ideas, the reality can be very different
Design with Ease
“The delivery of a very important project was late, and I had used a new courier to deliver it. Frantic phone calls to their office ensued, but they had no record of the order. I was stressed to the max, and to top it all off, I had both children crying to be picked up. I was running around the house trying to keep my cool AND stop the guy on the phone from hearing the kids screaming blue murder. Thankfully my order turned up a day later, but it was not my favourite afternoon!”
The trouble with working from home is that both can be unpredictable. Work crisis' happen, and if they coincide with a home one, then you have twice as much to navigate. Working from home WITH KIDS is a whole new ball game, since you have to also manage limited time to work too. Who better to tell us about the peaks and pitfalls of working from home that mothers who do just that?
Eleanor, Graphic Designer/Office Manager
So I work part time and a bit around my childcare. I have a home office, but most often I work from my 'coffice' (coffee shop office) because I like the bustle of people around me. I also set up a desk in the living room with the intention of working away whilst my son plays, however, he tends to want to bash the keyboard if he sees me occupied with something!
Scheduling my time is how I get by, that and endless to-do lists. I have several aspects to what I do, so I have to write things down as I go otherwise they get lost in the mele of my brain. My best tip is to network as best you can as working from home can be lonely, and you need a constant stream of new business too.