January 7, 2008
- My dogs are annoying. I mean, they will not leave me alone. This does not bode well for my feelings towards my own child when she is here with me next week.
- I feel like the kitchen calls my name to eat all day. I need someone here to make me feel embarrassed for eating non-stop.
- I didn’t get motivated to bathe until 2pm. I need to work on that.
- Time flies WAY too fast in this working environment. It’s already time to get the kids and I didn’t stop going all day!
- My neighborhood is noisier during the day than I thought it would be. I swear to all that is holy that someone down the street has a rooster.
- I miss my old office chair. It was one of those fancy expensive ones. One day in the crappy chair at the house and my back is KILLING me.
Over Christmas break I:
a) ate everything in the kitchen
b) didn’t shower until noon a few times
c) made a new (probably larger, thanks to “a”) butt print in my comfy living room chair and
d) realized that my old-people neighbors are much louder before they go to bed at 7pm
You aren’t alone.
My mom told me, just recently though that I could write off a new chair as an office expense on my taxes since I work from home though; that probably means you can do the same!
Dude, put them doggies outside. No joke. That’s why fences were invented.
Also I just bought me a new desk chair because my other one hurt my ass so bad.
I got it for $60 at Office Depot. Do you have those there?
It’s so damn comfortable. I sat in it all day yesterday. I might should be embarrassed to say that, but oh well.
oh, man…they wouldn’t let you take the office chair as a going away present? no fair.
@supertiff – No, but I got my macbook AND my desktop computer!
Oh, I have the hardest time being good about food on the weekends when I’m home!
The hubs and I had to invest in these things called “Kongs.” They’re super-tough chew toys for dogs that have a hole in the end that you insert a treat or some peanut butter. It gives them something to focus on and play with besides you. We have two mutt puppies, and one will play with it for about 20 minutes and then leave it, but she’s pretty low energy anyway. The other one, the one that will pull sheets out of the dryer and magic erasers out of the cabinet to chew on, will take hers into the corner and gnaw on it for as much as an hour. Last night, she actually woke up, got off the couch, went and got it from the kitchen, and brought her toy back up on the couch with her to chew on some more. Best investment for my sanity at night, hands down.
Many more lessons to learn, I’m sure. Just being at home with kids all day is a challenge, let along having to actually WORK. Good luck with that!
And your pregnant back & ass deserves a nice, cushy, chair. I say treat yourself.
Seriously I’ve been doing this for 10 years.. my stupid advice is never ending:
1. Plan on going out to eat for lunch even if you brown bag it at the park or something – if you don’t get out you’ll start to feel trapped and hate your house and want to flee.
2. Investigate the possibility of a mommy’s helper for a little bit when you’re starting out. Little Miss is going to see this as an all-Mommy-all-the-time-festival for a while. It will take a bit to train her to leave you alone and a mommy’s helper can run interference for you and help her learn how to find ways to play without you (other than the TV).
3. Set limits, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of working 24/7
4. If it’s in your budget get an air-card and go mobile. Yes a lot of places have hotspots so you can work out of the house but not a lot of those places have things to do for the kids. (Although my Chick-Fi-La has free Wi-Fi and therefore they rock, Amen.) With an air-card you can pretty much work anywhere you damn well please, even story time at the library.
5. Ask your old boss to sell you the chair. He’s not using it and it’s got your own special butt print. Take it with you if you can. Good chairs are worth it.
Honey, honey, honey… take the tax write-off and buy yourself a decent chair. Your back/butt/baby will love you for it. (I feel the same way about good chairs that I do about good mattresses – they can make all the difference.)
That, and try what Cheryl mentioned about the “Kong” toys (www.kongcompany.com), if you don’t already have them. Just don’t be too surprised if the supposedly “world’s best dog toy” doesn’t end up bitten in half so your Corgi* can get immediate satisfaction.
*Insert dog-breed here.
I finally had to just stop buying anything that was “easy” to grab and eat because I do the same thing. Going to the kitchen is a great break from the computer and seems so EASY and you’re only eating a LITTLE so it doesn’t count right? And then it creeps up on you.
Our dog and cats often will take me to the edge of reason, so I made sure I had an office space where I could either close them out or a room where I could close them in. And sometimes the dog just goes outside whether she likes it or not.
DEFINITELY plan outings. I don’t leave the house EVERY day, but even my husband has said that there is a distinct difference in my mood on the days when I’ve kind of holed up and the days when I went to the library to work for an hour, or walked the dog around the neighborhood during “lunch”.
I’ve also found that I have a tendency to burn out faster if I don’t really adhere to a schedule of some sort. If I just work here and there and do things in between and wander around I end up working from 7 am until 10 pm, or at least it feels like it. I do best when I’ve been able to really focus a certain time period on work. With NikkiZ around, that may be more difficult for you… but once you learn each other’s routines, I think you’ll do fine!
Luckily you don’t need to buy an aircard since you have a MacBook. Download iStumble for it and wifi away the hours wherever you want. Other than that, yeah, what they said.
Welcome to the workd of working at home! I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it soon (especially with some of this great advice). Congratulations on your new ventures and good luck!
Your first day of working from home sounds like my entire weekend. I swear that work is the only reason I get dressed each morning for I fear they would frown upon nudity or jammies.
But overall, did your first day go well? Are you happy? Because that’s really what matters.
Working from home is tough, duder. My husband does it, loves it sometimes, but hates it when I assume “work from home” actually = “not working and therefore available to run errands.”
Can’t say that I blame him, really.
I feel your pain (or rather expanding waistband). When I work in the office I rarely eat. I slip in a 20 minute lunch and that’s about it. But at home I’m constantly raiding the kitchen. It’s there. It’s free. And it’s stocked with all my favorites.
And showering, I rarely shower before 3pm when I work from home. I do like to try and jump in the shower before the kids get home from the bus, but even that doesn’t happen some days.
I bet it will all get easier as the dogs get used to you working at home. It will be harder with the child hanging around. Good luck!!
Oh my dear word – yes – dogs are annoying working from home. One dog would probably be great company and such, but like you, we have three dogs. Three is definitely annoying.
But I love them so.
I notice you don’t have any ads on this site, only on the new blog. I think you could add some unobtrusive ads on
here– the blogher ads for example. Good luck!
You should have bargined for the office chair in the severance package! Chairs are important!
I work from home, and my routine usually goes something like this:
7 am get up, make coffee.
Work in jammies until 10 am or so.
Shower, then work some more while swatting away kitten until lunch.
Noonish, eat lunch.
Work some more until 3:30 pm(ish).
The more routine I add into the day, the more I tend to accomplish. Not sure how a kid would (or will) fit into this routine! Looking forward to hearing how you do it!
Congratulations on all of this, by the way. Working from home can be fantastic.
When we moved I did the work from home thing for 6 months. I got an excellent desk chair at Sam’s Club. What a difference from the office reject, admin’s chair I had been using! Where ever you go to buy one, try it out first. I abandoned my first choice after sitting in it and trying the adjustments. Otherwise, I don’t have a lot advice that hasn’t already been given. I don’t have dogs or a toddler, so I can’t say your experience will be like mine. I was very good about getting up, getting showered and dressed – shorts or jeans and t-shirts – and starting work. I took a 30 minute lunch break, and quit at my regular time every day. It helped that my husband was adamant about me stopping at a reasonable hour. Like I said YMMV. Good luck!
I’m going to jump in and comment on having children at home when you’re a work at home mom – Babygirl goes to preschool M-Th from 9-11:30, so I work while she’s gone. After that I shut down the computer and spend time JUST WITH HER until 1:30, which her is naptime – at which point I pick up the computer and go at it until we pick Toad up at 3. I’ve found that you have to set time for your children during the day, just like you’ve got to have time for your work as well. I do the majority of my work in the evening hours, when the hubby is home to have his playtime with the kids and after they’ve gone to bed. This way they don’t have to be entertained all day by Dora or Spongebob (Lord save me).
It’s a tricky balance, but it’s possible, and it’s worth it.
Good luck. I am just happy to read more from you.
You will do great.
Maybe you should call up and ask if you could get the chair included with your severance? I mean… it’s not like they need it for someone else to sit in right?
I would like to report: I AM GETTING THE AWESOME CHAIR! Steve called me tonight and said I am welcome to it! I hope he didn’t think that’s why I posted this entry, because he already let me keep my laptop and computer (since they’re shutting down the office) – but I’m grateful either way! ALL HAIL THE AWESOME CHAIR!
Okay – assvice from someone who has never been there but watched her friend learn this lesson – talked to Mr. Z now about the need for him to take on a good chunk of evening time with NikkiZ by himself because that will be your real work time. (And LilZ, maybe? I know its not his job, but since he’s so good about that stuff.) You always say you hate to ask and you feel like her bath, etc. are your job, but that has got to go. My guess is you are NOT going to be able to work all day when she’s home with you.
Congrats on such a big change and surviving your first day working from home!! I just went back to an office job after 2 years working from home. It was wonderful, but challenging. I won’t add to all the advice you’ve gotten already, but wanted to say YEA YOU for taking the leap!
Wait a minute – how did I miss this? And I usually read every day!
Sorry about your job, but welcome to my world of working at home – I think you’re going to love it!! (I hope, or you may want to hit me!!)
It’s hard, but worth it. I hang over at transcriptionessentials.com and we have a coffee clatch (sp) every day. WAHM.com is a nice board, too, to find niches for certain work at home careers.
Good luck and blessings! Dori
My dog is the most annoying thing in the world with me being at home all day. He barks a lot and he’s just generally naughty. Meghan is so easy compared to that dog.
The few times I’ve worked from home my dogs would not leave me alone either.
Perhaps, next week you won’t be as tempted to eat since NikkiZ will be there to distract you.
*whispers*
I work from home, and some days I don’t shower until bedtime, it’s that bad. My dog is also all about the attention – my respect goes to anyone who can work with kids!
Just wait until people start “popping in” because, “you’re just sitting at home all day now, aren’t you?” Or asking when you’re going to “go back to work”, regardless of the fact that you now work much harder than you ever did at the office. My personal work from home pet peeve
Amber
p.s. It’s still brilliant, though.
Congrats on the new chair!
I worked from home for a couple of years. It was freaking hard! I too didn’t bathe most days. Didn’t get dressed much either. And the time to pick up the kids from school seemed to come earlier and earlier every day!!!