Learn to Separate Family From Work

Work at home parents face challenges that are rather unique. We have made the choice to work from home in order to have more time with our families. This is sometimes a decision that is at times wonderful and at other times monumentally bad. We wanted to work at home so we wouldn’t have to leave our children in the care of others while we trudged off to the trenches each and every day wasting precious moments not only working outside the home but during the commute each way as well.

Now that you’ve made the move to work from home, I’m guessing that you’ve noticed that the reality isn’t quite as rosey as the mental image was. The first weeks will be challenging but are also very important in establishing a routine with you and your family in regards to your workday. You must separate your business from your family and you must make them understand that while you are home, you must also work. This is sometimes hard for spouses to understand but establishing this early will save major problems later on.

Here are a few things you can do that will help you keep your business and your family separate.

•••1) Set business hours. This is as much for you as it is for other family members. A wise person once told me that until I treated my business like a business and took it seriously I could not expect anyone else to do so either. Take frequent breaks and be flexible with your children, but be adamant about keeping your business hours as sacred as possible. At the same time, when it’s quitting time, it’s time to quit for the day. Your family will resent your business if it constantly cuts into their time with you.

•••2) Don’t do housework during business hours. I plan my business hours after 10:00 in the morning so that I can get some housework done and a meal thrown into the crock-pot before beginning my workday. Whatever you need to do in order to keep from vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, etc. during your business hours is highly recommended. Making one exception is an open invitation for more to follow. Try as hard as possible to make this a rule and keep it one.

•••3) Don’t take personal phone calls during your business hours. This is a huge no-no. If it’s an emergency they will leave a message. I’m not talking about not answering the kid’s school or something like that, but do you really need to talk to your sister-in-law about the family reunion or should that wait until family time?

•••4) Be sure that you are working during your business hours. The more you actually get accomplished during your business hours, the less you will be distracted by during family time.

•••5) Delegate housework during your family time. If everyone works together on the unpleasant tasks, there is more time for family fun. That, more than anything else will be what your children remember about you working from home and what it means to them.

•••6) Don’t get so caught up in work that you can’t make time for your family when you need to. It’s a fine line sometimes between what we feel we need to be doing for them and what they really need us to do. Sometimes, it helps to take 20 minutes just to devote time to them and ignore the computer. Our family (at least for a vast majority of us) is the reason we work from home; don’t forget that as you work to build your business.

Keeping your family and business separate will bring great rewards. You will find that your family doesn’t resent your ‘office time’ because you are making sure that you have plenty of time for them and that you are still able to get a great deal of work accomplished because they don’t feel the constant need to interrupt. And also remember that there is no reason you can’t put your older children to work for you. This will give you good quality time together and still get office tasks accomplished. Those are memories that will be treasured by both of you.

By Adam Terebeckij

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More dads looking to balance work and family

by Eve Tahmincioglu

As fathers across the nation were celebrated on Sunday for being great dads, a new study on fatherhood shows that an increasing number of men are seeking alternatives to a traditional 40-hour workweek in order to spend more time with their kids.

Take Michael Sherman, 38, who last year moved out of his law offices in Mobile, Ala., and into a home office, cut his case load and hours by more than half and started homeschooling his four kids, ages 2 to 12.

Sherman said he was feeling burned out by his divorce and family law practice. His stressful workload, coupled with the fact that his oldest child was in middle school and before he knew it his kids would be off to high school then college, prompted the change. “Time was flying by,” he said.

Jason Chupick, media director for public relations firm Crenshaw Communications in New York, also wanted to make sure he had time for his 2-year old son. So when he found a new job, he chose an employer that allowed him to craft a flexible schedule.

He now works three days a week, leaving at 4:30 p.m. so he can pick up his son from day care.

“I needed the flexibility,” he said.

Like Sherman and Chupick, more dads are starting to stand up and ask for more flexible work arrangements — from time off after a baby is born to reduced hours and days. Such options were once thought to be a mother’s domain, but now an increasing number of dads want to be more hands-on in raising their kids. Others are driven by economics: a wife might earn more money or not have flexibility at work.


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