Best and Worst Things About Being a Work-From-Home Parent

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

Since I gave birth to my first child almost eight years ago, I've been a work-from-home mom as a full-time, part-time, and contract employee. My work status has garnered jealous comments from both my stay-at-home parent and traditional working parent friends, who love the idea of wearing pajamas to the office and spending more time with their kids, and I never quite know how to respond. Yes, I know I'm lucky to have the flexibility of working from home, but is it a perfect professional world? Absolutely not.

For every day that I thank my lucky stars that I get to work from my kitchen counter while my son contentedly plays with his action figures in the next room, there's another that I crave the consistency and quiet I remember from my office jobs while my kids are demanding their third snack or a game of Candy Land while I'm racing to meet a deadline. If you're a parent who works from home, thinking of becoming one, or just envious of your friends who are, here are the five best — and five worst — parts of the WFHP life.

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1. Best: The Dress Code Is Stellar

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.

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2. Best: You'll Never Miss a Delivery

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.

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3. Best: You'll Learn to Be Super Productive

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.

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4. Best: It's Much Easier to Make School Events

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.

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5. Best: There's No Traffic Keeping You From Getting Home

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.

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6. Worst: You Can Never Really Get Away From Work

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.

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7. Worst: Your Kids Don't Care That It's Work Time

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.

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8. Worst: You'll Feel Isolated

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.

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9. Worst: You'll Still Feel Pressure to Do Most of the Household Work

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.

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10. Worst: It's Tough to Stick to a Schedule

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.

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