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The Lament of the Work-at-Home Man

Here we are, raising our kids, taking hold of our lives, and striving like the rest of our country's workers to earn a paycheck and make ends meet. It may not be glamorous.... but when my kids come home from school, or my wife returns from work, I'm there to greet them.

© 1998, by Jeffrey D. Zbar

We know what you're thinking.

You see some guy working from home, walking to the mailbox in the early morning sun, cup of joe in one hand, portable phone perched in his shorts pocket. Your mind gets to thinking about his evil ways.

He's a corporate drop-out, you smirk with disdain, someone who couldn't hack it in the "real" world. So he shoves his wife off to work every morning to slave at her day job, so he can sit home and pretend to ply some trade -- all the while catching reruns of Hawaii Five-O, and snatching up his spouse's net at week's end.


We've all suffered the snickers. We've been the bane of parents-in-law for half a generation now. Even my daughter has publicly misconstrued my career. When Miss Sheila asked a class full of 5-year-olds what their parents did for a living, Nicole responded, "My mommy is a nurse, and my daddy works in his underwear." Egads!

You think being a man who works at home is all hack re-runs and slack schedules? Put yourself in our flip-flops. In some ways, work-at-home women have it easier; they're more common, and men, by whatever foiled reasoning, don't belong outside the corporate tower downtown.

We've been called "Mr. Mom" and "Soccer Dad." Heck, on the days that my wife, Robbie, does work, I tool around in a minivan, for Pete's sake, driving carpool and fetching kids from dance practice -- all while I try to earn my keep.

Truth be told (as if I have to explain myself to anyone), you've got the wrong man. For the sake of work-at-home men and fathers everywhere, I'm here to set the record straight. We work at home because we want to.

Sure, maybe we once were so much jetsam ditched by Corporate America. Or maybe, like myself, we didn't like corporate life all that much, and figured we could do it better on our own, thank you.

So here we are, raising our kids, taking hold of our lives, and striving like the rest of our country's workers to earn a paycheck and make ends meet. It may not be glamorous. There's no watercooler to schmooze around or boss to commiserate about. And sure, we take chiding from those around us. But when my kids come home from school, or my wife returns from work, I'm there to greet them. Where are you, Mr. or Ms. Corporate Ladder Climber?

After 10 years spent working from spare bedrooms in our various homes, a friend recently referred to me as a "pioneer" on the work-at-home frontier. Maybe so. If that's the case, then I guess pioneers have to endure some arrows to settle the land.

Still, no one said anything about Lewis & Clark taming the west in a Caravan...


Jeffrey D. Zbar is a home-based freelance writer, speaker and author of the book Home Office Know-How (Upstart Publishing/Chicago, 1998). Jeff is our EP Dad Expert and specializes in work@home, alternative officing and marketing issues.

 
 
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