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Dear mother, working from home does not always mean freedom

Parenting

With the rise in complains from working mothers regarding abusive nannies, office jobs have become a bitter pill for career women and more so those who desire to climb the corporate ladder without losing their families. Businesswomen have not been spared either; when it is not the pain of the nanny, the long trips and the need to attend business events has left the woman today in a state where time away from her family demands to be reduced largely. Due to the need to remain financially independent, a large percent of working mothers have opted to solve the earning mystery by working from home. What do these mothers need to know before making that critical move?

 

Success and failures have a way of following each other as they visit their victims; as you join the work-from-home moms’ bandwagon, it is worth to note that discipline will be the thin line separating the two. As taking work home comes to an end since you will already be working from home, this will mark the beginning of disciplined timelines. The financial independence you so badly seek to retain as you raise your children will be governed by your ability to divorce your bed, attend to the house chores, staying off unnecessary YouTube videos and group chats in order to get that day’s share of work done. After all, working from home does not altogether mean freedom; do not be deceived.

Do not be surprised when your children question your sleeping patterns and your constant online life. If your job entails building websites and managing your clients’ social media platforms, you might find yourself rising up as early as 2pm just to respond to a Facebook comment from a guy whose only link to your house is the imaginary latitude. Worse still, if you have to share that laptop with your children as they do their science projects; how will you explain that your late night online presence translates to food on the table while you have been preaching against it?

 

How about your likes and dislikes, will they shield or break you? Understanding that there are situations you can stand better than others will rule out what kind of work you can actually undertake at home. While you may be gifted in various areas, working from home will mean that you will need to consider where your clients will find you. If having a stranger come into your house bothers you, then online jobs may favor you better than fashion design, beadwork or running a home beauty parlor which demands that your client visits you at home. Will you trade your privacy for freedom?

Though working from home especially for mothers has been overly glorified, it is not for everyone. If you find it hard to focus on what you want to achieve, working from home may not be the pie for you. However, you could learn to cane yourself by having a member of the family check up on you from time to time as well as help you to keep your lifetime goals within line of sight. Remember, the greatest joy of every mother working from home is to be able balance work and embrace her children when they get home from school and ask, “Is Mom home?”

 

 

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