Kid you not
If you’re flexible, working at home with children can be productive, rewarding
While it hasn’t reached Gangnam Style status, the video of Robert Kelly being interrupted by his small children during an interview with the BBC has made millions of YouTube viewers smile. And for some, those smiles are accompanied by a silent nod of “been there, done that.”
Kelly, an associate professor of political science at Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea, was discussing North Korean politics from his home when his four-year-old daughter Marion swaggered up to his desk. Within a minute, his younger daughter and his wife made unsolicited appearances as well.
“When the wife tries to sneak in to get her daughter, I thought ‘yup, I’ve lived that life,’” says Holly Taylor, a freelance graphic designer who works from her Indianapolis home. “I have weekly online meetings with my team in Charlotte and it never fails — my son hears voices coming from my computer and he comes flying into the room to wave hello to everyone. It’s almost like the meeting doesn’t start until Michael comes right up to the screen and waves his chubby hands all around.”
Taylor says she tried to stop her threeyear-old son from entering her home office but ended up having to cut short her call because he stood at the door screaming. “Maybe it’s bad parenting but a 30-second shout-out from a kid is better than 15 minutes of listening to someone bang on the door and howl like coyote,” she says.
The evolving workplace
Those parental compromises are what help a lot of work-at-home moms and dads make it through the day. And surprisingly, many companies understand. “People work from home — or are allowed to work from home — for a reason,” says Nelson Bitmore, a work/life consultant based in San Jose, California. “Companies save money on space or they’re hiring freelancers to save money on benefits, so there has to be some give-and-take when it comes to one’s work environment.”
Bitmore says that most home-based workers can tell which employers are open to the occasional interruption and which look upon any indication of a life beyond work as a weakness. “I’ve had people tell me they’ve been booted off of teleconferences as soon as there’s a slight interruption, like a baby crying in the background,” he says.
Belinda Pawlowski says she’s experienced the online cold shoulder firsthand. “I’ve received emails during calls from a person I’m looking at on-screen that essentially say ‘can you get your kid out of the room?’ And I’ll turn around and see my daughter sitting on the floor reading a book and I’m like ‘really? That’s a distraction?’ says Pawlowski, a benefits specialist in Dayton, Ohio. “I’m thinking ‘this kid understands that her mom is working so sits on the floor and reads, and you think that’s a bad thing? It doesn’t even affect you.’”
Marla Caceres, a freelance copywriter and comedy writer in Chicago, says her son is too young to understand when mom is working — “or he doesn’t want to understand” — but with the help of her husband, who is home most days to watch their 2-year-old son and 5-monthold daughter, she’s able to get work done, even if it’s not in a conventional way.
“We’re in a two-bedroom apartment with two kids and a dog so there’s no den or office,” Caceres says. “I’m playing musical chairs most of the day, always moving to the quietest spot. When I can, I go to this coffee shop I really like and do work there.”
Even then, Caceres doesn’t expect to have a long periods of uninterrupted time. “I can get a lot done during the day — things like responding to emails and scheduling calls — but if I have anything that requires intense concentration, I’ll do it at night,” she says. And even that requires some creativity. “I’m a pro at nursing the baby in front of my computer,” Caceres says. “When she’s done, I’ll put her across my lap and type over her. She’ll sleep or just stare up at me. As long as I don’t make any sudden moves, I’m OK.”
Striking a balance
Ken Circo, owner of Circo Architects, Inc. in Riverside, Illinois, has been an architect for 24 years and has been in business for himself — and working from home — for 12 years. Circo, whose wife is a teacher, says his day is a constant mix of fulfilling professional and personal responsibilities. “I get everyone up and dressed, make lunches and get the kids off to school. Then I spend time being an architect for a few hours before going back to dad-mode to pick them up, cook dinner and do some cleaning,” Circo says. “It’s a lot of little things each day.”
Although he’s worked from his home office and his dining room table in the past, Circo says he finds that he gets the most work done when he heads to the library or coffee shop. “It’s a good way to get out of my home environment and get into architect mode,” he says. “That’s one of the benefits of being in a creative field. I can do my work in different places. It’s not like I’m a dentist and I can only work from my office.”
Circo’s children are now 12 and 7 and at school during the day but when they were younger, he modified his schedule to spend as much time as possible with them, time he says helped him personally as well as professionally. “We’d just pick up and go to the park or go for walks and it really helped me see things in new ways. When your four-year-old son tells you what he likes about a building or park, it makes you think about space and light and structure,” Circo says, “You see things in ways you’d never see while sitting in a desk in an office.”
During the summer when Circo’s wife is home from school, he says his schedule is a bit more structured. “I get out of the house earlier,” he says. “When everyone’s home and running around, it’s like a Saturday all the time so it can be hard to get things done.”
Even with his fractured schedule, Circo is more than content with his current situation. “I don’t think I can do a 9-to-5 again,” he says. “I don’t know if I could sit in the same place doing the same task for a number of hours. And I’m lucky. I get to experience things with my children I wouldn’t have experienced if I had a traditional work experience.”
Caceres agrees. “I like the variety of freelancing,” she says. “And I have as much work as a traditional 9-to-5 but I don’t have to do it within eight consecutive hours during the day. I can spend time with my daughter and my son. I can do things with them everyday. I can watch them grow up. It’s really special.”