Working from home: Is it worth it?

As some of you will know from reading some of my manic, late-night tweets, I’ve had a pretty busy work week. I’ve worked every evening since some time last week (probably whenever I wrote the last post here, in fact). This work-fest (that pales into insignificance next to the ones I used to push through pre-Rosemary) culminated last night (or this morning, really) when I finished the final big deadline (there were four in total) and uploaded the files to the client’s FTP site at 3.30am.

I know at least two other WAHMs who’ve been struggling with workloads/juggling lately – Home Office Mum wrote a poem about it and Perfectly Happy Mum recently decided to take a step back from her business in order to maintain her happiness.

Being a work at home parent means a lot of juggling and attempting to find a balance between needing to keep that roof over your head/the debt collectors from the door and giving your children the attention they need. Working for yourself, regardless of whether you have children, means you are almost always going to have some horrible periods of working far too much, as well as periods of twiddling your thumbs, wondering what you should be doing with the empty week you suddenly have free, because Project X has slipped.

I do know people who manage, for the most part, to book in exactly the right amount of work. People who work 25 hours a week and stick to it. But even they will face the dilemma of a slipped project clashing with an already-booked one. If they refuse to take on the slipped project, they miss out on money they had been counting on, unless they can find something last-minute to fill the gap. If they agree to do it, something will have to give, as they will suddenly have 50 hours’ work to do in a 25-hour working week.

If you add children into the mix, there’s now something else that might have to give. Is it going to be your morning trip to toddler group? Is it going to be your baking afternoon? Is it going to be the weekly swimming outing? Or is it going to be your sleep? Whichever you choose, everyone loses out a bit. You might still do the baking, but you’re more likely to snap at your child for spilling flour on the floor or sticking her fingers in the butter. You might get your full night’s sleep, but you’ll miss the laughter and the fun of the pool.

And sometimes you might miss out on it all. Yesterday, I spent maybe half an hour of quality time with Rosemary. And a quarter of an hour of snapping at her for dawdling (for ever!) after playgroup. It’s not enough. She had a lovely day. Chris had a lovely day. The house was all clean and tidy. But I missed her and wanted so much not to be sat in front of my computer, but to be playing doctors or singing songs or reading books with her.

Times like that I wish for a 9-5 job, or maybe even the ability to be a SAHM. Times like that I think that I should never recommend anyone try being a WAHM or a WAHD. Times like that I yearn for a holiday (ooh, and I’m actually getting one this year!). Times like that I wish I could crack open a bottle of Baileys and drown myself in alcoholic cream.

Fortunately, though, there are other times, often quite close to the horrible ones, when I am so happy to have the flexibility that only really comes from working for yourself. Times like today, when I checked what else I had to do this week and realised I could do it tomorrow morning, without breaking a sweat. Times like today, when my husband asked if he could take me out for lunch, and then did so. Times like today, when, other than spending about half an hour answering emails, I have taken the whole day off from work. Times like today, when I played with my daughter and didn’t scream or snap. Times like today, when I had fun giving my daughter her bath. Times like today, when I got to go back to bed for three hours in the morning (kind of necessary after three and a half hours’ sleep, but still nice). Times like today, when I get to finally update the blog and will shortly get to sit down for my weekly fix of US TV (Bones at 9pm, ER at 10pm) and not do any work.

So… Yes, it’s still worth it. I would still recommend it. It’s a really good thing for family life – especially if you’re lucky enough to have your husband as a business partner. There are probably going to be times when you pull your hair out trying to meet deadlines. There are probably going to be times when you pull your hair out trying to bring in enough money to cover all the direct debits leaving your account. But there will probably also be lots of times when you thank your lucky stars that you can put your work down and go and see your child’s school play or take him to the doctor without having to beg your boss for the time off. There will probably be lots of times when you can pop into town to get your hair done and pick up the slack by doing a couple of hours in the evening or go and see the new big film in the cinema in the middle of the day. There will be many times when you can walk your children to school and pick them up again at the end of the day. And if you’re organised enough and put money away, you’ll be able to cope with those unexpected quiet weeks by going and doing something fun for you or with your family – or even both.

Yes, it is still worth it.