Mom’s deadline unnegotiable

Life’s hard for a new dad running his own business

Life

is always interesting when

you’re running your own business from home, but it’s particularly interesting when you have children. John, our 20- month- old, may only be a toddler but he’s a smart boy with a good grip on the concept of work/life balance. He has a knack for deciding when I need a break, and forcing me to take one.

Take the time when I was on a conference call and rapidly taking notes on my PC. Someone was plodding through a profoundly tedious monologue about processdriven efficiency models, when suddenly: PLINK. The screen went black and the PC, which had been whirring away underneath my desk, went ominously silent. Looking down, I saw a grinning John, with his finger on the PC’s power button. “WOO!” he shouted excitedly, and then, pointing at the screen, “WOO!” As if to emphasize the point.

You learn to take such things in stride when you are a dad working from home. But as of today, things are going to get a lot more complicated. Our new baby arrives! After nine months of waiting we’re eager to meet her, but she did require some preparation.

I don’t just mean household preparation. As a journalist working from home I have had to schedule my workload around her. I generally research and write four or five articles a week, but from today I’ll be taking four weeks off to care for the family.

Self-employed fathers don’t get paid for paternity leave, so I had to earn money to make up the shortfall. This explains why I’ve been in a state of shock for the past four weeks. I decided to increase my workload, and take on commissions for a months’ worth of articles alongside my regular work.

Consequently, I have been living in a state of fear that Sue will go into labour early. Only a journalist with 15 approaching deadlines and half his research still not done will understand the fear accompanying the phrase “I’m feeling some strong contractions.”

Susie uttered these dreaded words last Friday. “ Are you sure?” I said, putting the phone on mute and staring at her with a hunted look. “ You’re not scheduled for another week and I have a three o’clock interview with a software engineer from Microsoft. Can you put it off?” I was joking. Honestly. Sort of.

Luckily, it was a false alarm. But today, it really is scheduled, and it’s for real. Around the time you read this, I’ll be holding my new pride and joy in a swaddling blanket and deadlines will be the furthest thing from my mind.

That is, until I have to start writing the articles I didn’t get time to finish, while preventing John from throwing himself off the dining room table. Did I forget to mention, while freelancers sometimes slow down, they never really stop work altogether?

I already feel like I have grabbed a treasured few minutes in the calm eye of a hurricane, bracing himself for the remainder of the storm. Wish me luck. I’ll tell you how it goes, next week.

Financial Post Danny Bradbury is a freelance journalist living in Saskatoon. He writes regularly for Tech Post