Jennifer@home's Profile

Jonnifer, your idea for at least part-time day care is a good one. Just be prepared, both financially and with wait lists at day cares, to switch to more than just 3-days/week if the 3-day/week schedule does not work out as planned.

While jcmom is being pointedly snarky, much of what's posted there is valid. If your work is part-time and can be done a couple of hours here and there, doing it at home with your children there may be a dream come true. But if you simply work from home with the expectation of producing the same amount of work as those who show up at the office daily, doing so with kids at home means you're doing two jobs at the same time (your regular job and childcare).

If you end up with an "easy" baby who sleeps well, and on a pretty regular schedule, you'll be one of the lucky ones who can plan on an hour or two of work during the naps, but you can't count on it (we've had good and bad nappers at our house).. As they get older, and nap less (or, gasp! drop the nap altogether), it becomes impossible to work at home with young children, especially if you're opposed to using the television or other electronic gadgets as babysitters. Even when they're old enough for preschool, most preschools let out at noon or 2:30, which gives you just 4-6 hours of "working" time while they're away from home. Even if your work is flexible enough where you can try to make up the time after they go to bed, you may be too exhausted by the end of the day to pick back up on 2-3 hours more of work you need to do to keep up with the demands of the job.

In short, successful working from home depends a lot on the demands of the work you're trying to get accomplished from home.