Working From Home

I'm blessed with a family-friendly employer who allows staff to telecommute a day or two per week if they can work out a reasonable arrangement with their department manager. I've been working from home nearly every Monday and Friday since Legoman was born in early 2005. When he was an only child, I had him home with me on those days, and when Noodle came along in 2007, I had Legoman go to day care full-time while I kept Noodle home with me. I could (and will) write many blog posts about my experiences with this arrangement at different points in their young lives, but let's fast forward to today.

Both boys woke up by 6:30am when hubby was getting ready to leave for work. No rest for the weary. I let them watch cartoons while I tried to pry my eyes open and got a shower and that not-so-helpful but oh-so-necessary cup of decaf coffee. By 7:30 they were eating breakfast, and I was starting to answer emails.

By 8am I was breaking up the first fight.

By 8:30 I was dragging out the art kits I'd picked up over the weekend to keep them busy while I worked, instead of always relying on the TV and Wii.

By 9am they were finished with their art projects and back to fighting.

We hit a smoother groove for a couple hours in the late morning, but when I tried to get them ready to run some errands over my lunch break, we hit another snag. I had thrown away Noodle's old toothbrush on Friday right in front of him because its bristles were completely bent backwards and were useless to clean his teeth. Honestly, I should've noticed much sooner and gotten rid of the thing long before Friday. I checked in on him as he was using the bathroom to get ready to leave, and he was using the old toothbrush he had reclaimed from the bathroom trashcan. (Try not to throw up reading that. Just try. Deep breaths and swallow hard. You'll be OK.) A half-hour of crying ensued when I took the toothbrush back from him and told him that taking something out of the trash was never allowed and that he now had to brush his teeth with his new toothbrush to clean out his mouth. (He's lucky I know it's unsafe to brush with straight bleach!) I'm just counting on that strong immune system built up from five years in a day-care center and a year in kindergarten to get him through whatever he just exposed himself to from that trash can. Shudder.

Thankfully, our errands went just fine, and we regrouped yet again. Legoman even tried to console his sodden brother while he blew his nose and lamented the loss of that apparently special toothbrush.

Some days are easier than others, no doubt. They're still adjusting to spending so much time together after having a full school year of being in separate places most of the time--separate classrooms at both day care and school, separate Little League teams, etc. Now they are together seven days a week, either at our house while I work or with my friend who is watching them this summer when I'm at the office. Mondays are always the hardest because they've been together nonstop since Thursday evening.

Next week I'll be on a business trip, and I'll miss them fiercely, fights and all. Funny how that happens, the whole "grass is greener" phenomenon.

If you work full-time, does your employer have any flexibility with hours or offer telecommuting? Do you take advantage of it? I find that even though it is a struggle sometimes, it has really helped us keep our lives a bit more on track to have me home Mon/Fri than if I work five days a week in the office (an experiment I tried for part of this past school year and that I'll tell you about later). At my workplace, such perks are not limited to moms or even to parents. Any staffer who'd like to work from home occasionally and has a job that is portable can do so. I think it's no surprise that we celebrate lots of 10- and 20-year anniversaries every year. Employees tend to be happier when their employer recognizes them as human beings with a family and life outside the office. I feel blessed I'm in one of those workplaces, even with the bumpy ride that telecommuting  with two active boys around can be.