10 Remarks That Home-Working Mothers Hate to Hear

It is funny how many people take a long time getting to the idea that mothers who work at home are basically the same as they are, and the difference doesn’t really justify the shower of silly questioning they are regularly subjected to. Besides being abridged to the horrible set of initials, Work-At-Home Moms have to face misunderstanding from almost every quarter. Imagine yourself having to explain your working schedule in detail for about four-five times a week to different people who get curious all of a sudden – and make up your mind to refrain from saying at least this handful of things that are sure to come daown poorly among women who work at home.

• It must be the easiest kind of job ever, no? – No. Generally the mom wakes up before birds because morning is such a good time to put in some work when it is quiet. Then it’s children time – get them fed, dressed, spruced up, taken to school. Oh yes, beds to be made up, or helped to be made up. Some time to spend on yourself, breakfast, hygiene, then work, work, work until it’s time to get the children back. Dinner, bath, sorting out small daily troubles, getting them to bed, complete with lullabies and reading, and a couple of hours’ work before she can turn in. Call that easy?
• Well, it’s nice to be able to go about all day in your pajamas, isn’t it? – Oh, is that what you picture? So when you meet the work-at-home mothers you know, they are invariably dressed in pajamas? While they are perfectly able to retain their pajamas for the most part of the day, somehow they have the same likes like we do – change into fresh clothes, turn themselves out and look satisfactory at the very least. The desks are often quite near the couch, right, and that may give the idea of working straight from the bed without caring to move about, but let’s be a bit cleverer than that.
• You must enjoy a lot of free time in-between. – Is that what you do in your office? There is no boss to step in on how they work, but that doesn’t mean they get slacker and slacker with every hour. There’s no-one else to accomplish that job, see?
• Isn’t it unbearable that there is not a living soul about to exchange a few words with? – Well, that depends whether when you converse with your friends via the Internet you call them living souls or just gif photos on your monitor? With some mothers there is too much of it, like Skype conferences, endless work calls, even going out to see people when it’s convenient for both parties. Don’t tell them they live in prison cells and not homes. And what about real live friends? Nobody drops friends because they landed a job, right?
• How great it must be to stay at home for hours without having to go out anywhere! You go out when you want, imagine being free to have a manicure done at any time at all! – You mean there’s no-one to stop them… Except themselves. You don’t always do everything you may do, true? It’s not so much different from an office – work comes first, and while going to the kitchen to get some coffee (no coffee machines handy, more’s the pity) is done quite often, you don’t want to indulge in long drop-outs, really. Because you have things to do!
• Can I drop in for a chat? – No, she’s not in an office, but does it follow that her time is her own? Sadly, no. If it’s work time, and sometimes when it’s past, she is up to her ears. She doesn’t delight in explaining it to you again and again that you are interfering. She will be happy to hear you out on the subject of your new Tinder capture when her mind is free from having to reply to emails and get the work progressing. Think about it when you decide when to give her a call. Afternoons are a bad time for idle chat.
• How can you attend to your work with children in the house? – That’s a good one, apart from another spell of explaining. First, getting up very early helps to tackle the most urgent part of the daily routine. Yet it doesn’t help that much towards meeting all the deadlines! So they take the old laptop along when they take the children to art schools, swimming pools and sport practices, lie heavily on the hubby for before-bed-time, and often chew their lunch without tearing themselves away from the current task. We will not speak about yelling at their family when the noise gets past the rock concert level.
• Hey, you work at home, what’s the point of hiring a nanny or sending the children to daycare? – Now what sort of question is that? Can you split into two halves at need so that your clone takes care of the children while you make haste to get your workload – not done, but lightened. Or do you enjoy rushing from your laptop to your child and back sixty times in an hour? There may be heroes in this world who can do that, but the guess is, they are not in this state.
• Have you considered not working at all? You can’t be earning so much money after all. – OK, let’s start from the point that although their homes are their offices and their schedules may look a bit funny and unusual, it doesn’t mean that they take their work lightly. So those who keep to dress codes and strut about offices make money, and those who work from their dinner tables don’t? Working is a lifestyle, besides money, it brings self-respect, satisfaction, fulfillment and, yes, pleasure. Shutting yourself within your home and going through the house chore motions will not make your life complete. They have considered that possibility and rejected it, learn to respect their decision.
• You can’t be making a career working at home. – So, you still believe that working in the bedroom is something inferior to working at the office desk? It sounds as if people, having gone for work at home, lost or sacrificed almost all the benefits of working – whereas they didn’t. What they are doing is keeping their work and family life in the best balance they could achieve, and that is great! They are in control of their lives, and this kind of work, albeit hard enough, is actually conducive to managing all sides of their lives. If you don’t see the rewards it doesn’t mean there are none. Be more discerning and grasp the main idea.