The 5 Best (and Worst) Things About Being a Work-From-Home Parent

The morning rush is crazy enough in my house, and my a.m. getting-ready routine involves putting on workout clothes, brushing my teeth, and that's it. I can't imagine having to shower, put on makeup, and find workplace-appropriate footwear. Slippers are totally fine for my office.

In my former office-working life, one of the most frustrating parts of being gone all day was missing deliveries again and again. Now I get my Amazon orders right on time, every time, and scheduling repairmen is a breeze.

You know what inspires you to get sh*t done? When you know you have a superlimited amount of time — nap time, the two or three hours of preschool — to work. You'll never be more productive than when you're working under the kid alarm clock.

Without a boss and coworkers working in close proximity, your ability to pop out for a school Halloween parade, holiday party, or afternoon pickup is way easier. Of course, you'll be thinking about how you're going to get all your work done later the whole time you're there.

The most frustrating part of my office-working husband's day is usually the long, traffic-filled commute he deals with each morning and night. That commute amounts to two hours he tries to spend making work calls and returning personal ones, but it usually feels like wasted time he could have spent with our kids. I don't have that problem.

Sick days, holiday days, personal days: they all become a grey area when you work from home. It's the same thing for nights, weekends, and any other time you used to feel totally comfortable not working when your job was 9-to-5. Now you have more flexibility during the weekdays, but you have to make up that time elsewhere, which means you might miss a Saturday soccer game or two.

My kids know that when I'm on my computer, they need to get their own snacks and entertain themselves . . . said no work-from-home parent ever. Your kids don't care about deadlines or work pressure. When they see Mom, they automatically see an "on duty" sign lit up across your chest, which means you'll have to tell them to leave you alone way more than your guilt tolerance will probably allow. You'll make it up to them later, you tell yourself.

Working from home means you don't have any coworkers to bug you with silly questions or funny personal stories, but it also means there's no one to bounce ideas off of, help you when you reach a mental roadblock, or entertain you when you need some stress relief. The alternative, if you're anything like me, is reading celebrity gossip sites and shopping online, which is fun, but doesn't exactly give you that personal connection.

Working from home means you're constantly faced with the dishes in the sink, the dust bunnies in the corner, and the laundry overflowing in its basket, and it's hard not to get drawn in. And because you're the one at home all day, your partner probably expects you to deal with it, too.

There are moments when you'll be desperate to get your kids away from you so you can work — and just as many moments when you'll be desperate to get away from work so you can be with your kids. When the sun is shining and they want to go to the park or pool, when there's a fresh layer of snow and they want to go sledding, or when they are dying to go to your favourite ice-cream shop, it's hard to say no. And so you don't. Every so often, working from home means you can get back to it after your mommy adventures.