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Home Office
- The Childcare Solution?
If you've been thinking
about working at home to save yourself money on childcare, unless
your children are school age, don't bother. If you've been considering
working at home as a way of supervising your children's caregivers,
then I highly recommend it.
© 1998,
by Judy Lederman
While being at home gives
you more flexibility in handling childcare, do not be fooled
into believing that you can do without childcare if you have
a home/office. The odd thing about important business calls is
that they inevitably come at the very instant that the kids are
clamoring for dinner, throwing tantrums or terrorizing each other.
An even stranger phenomenon is the fact that even the tiniest
children appear to have psychic ways of knowing when a business
call is critical. It is at that precise moment, when your children
are most likely to develop the excruciating colic, the insoluble
sibling problem and the disappointment that escalates into shrieks
and chaos.
That is why even
if you are the most organized and meticulous business person,
there comes a day when, to keep your sanity, you must make childcare
a significant part of your home/office regimen.
Children crave
attention. Understand that if you are pecking away at your home
computer or conducting business while your children are parked
in front of Nickelodeon, you are just as faulty as the Nanny
who does the same. Beepers and cell phones are marvelous inventions.
These tools can help you be at your child's Book Fair, yet still
enable you to catch those crucial calls.
If you are home
with your children and think you can do it all, remember to regularly
schedule quality time for the kids. Do the activities that you
would expect a babysitter to do -- give them plenty of fresh
air, read them books, play tic-tac-toe. The minute you feel that
the children are not getting what they need from you, consider
finding someone to give them some kind of alternate care.
The best part
about a home office is the innate flexibility you have to keep
an eye on your children's caregivers, and to take part in your
children's lives. My home office years kept me attuned to what
was happening in my home, and it enabled me to keep a close eye
on what was happening with the children, especially while my
younger children were too young to let me know exactly what was
going on.
If you've been
thinking about working at home to save yourself money on childcare,
unless your children are school age, don't bother. If you've
been considering working at home as a way of supervising your
children's caregivers, then I highly recommend it.
- Judy Lederman is the author of the forthcoming book
Searching for Mary Poppins and is the owner of
a home-based public relations firm in Westchester, New York.
She shares her expertise as the "Childcare" pro on
Moms Online. She can
be reached at [email protected],
phone: 1-800-JSL-FAME, P.O., Box 113, Ardsley-on-Hudson, NY 10503,
web site: www.searchingforpoppins.com
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