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Previous: Ecommerce Benchmarks and Action Items Working at home is a great way to have more time to spend with your children when they get home from school, but what do you do with the kids during the summer? How do you handle client calls, keeping the kids from getting bored, taking them to the beach or pool, having their friends over, and keeping the drippy ice cream cones and sticky fingers off your keyboard? I was fortunate when my children were young. It was a time when most mothers didn't work if they had kids under 12, or if they did work, they were teachers and had the summers off, too. We lived in a quiet suburban neighborhood, where it was safe to play in the streets, and there were usually other kids - and their parents - around. So, most of the time, the kids (who were 7 and 10 when I started working from home) could find things that were fun - and safe - to do for least part of the day. So, in the summer I'd adjust my schedule so I could get most of my work done in the mornings (I'd start at 6 or 7 am), and then do things with the kids in the afternoon, like go on short trips or keep an eye on them and their friends while they went swimming in our backyard pool. Since there were other parents around, if I had to visit clients, I could usually make arrangements for the kids to spend part of the day at a friend's house, so it just took a bit of planning for things to go smoothly. Working parents todays usually don't have things so easy. The two-income family is the rule rather than the exception these days (so there aren't a lot of parents other than the self-employed parents around). Streets - even in good neighborhoods- somehow don't seem as safe as they used to be, either. At least, I sure don't see many kids playing ball or jump rope or other games in the streets. So how do those of you who are work-at-home parents juggle work and kids? And for that matter, what about those of you who don't work at home? What do you do with your kids all summer? Posted on May 5, 2006 at 2:23 PM| Comments (17) Comments This is going to be a challenging summer for me. My 6 year old is too old for “mother’s morning out” (which goes through age 5), and I can’t have him watching TV all morning while I work. Right now I plan to enroll him in several week-long summer camps and let him spend some quality time with grandma. I’m going to get some workbooks for him to do, enroll him in the library’s summer reading program, and he’ll also have a list of chores he can do to earn extra money. He’ll still spend more time watching TV than I’d care for, but it’s the best solution I’ve got for now. Posted by: Lisa on May 6, 2006 at 7:59 PM I am trying to find a legitimate, home based work opportunity. How do you wade through all of the garbage to find the real deal? It is really frustrating. It seems that most so-called opportunities are scams, either directly aimed at your wallet, or scams that take your money to teach you how to rip off other people. I just want to work from home. I am tired of the traffic, the office politics, and frankly, punching other people’s time clocks. Posted by: Jessi on May 9, 2006 at 12:39 AM You’re right that there’s a lot of garbage out there. You’ll also find that if you post messages on unmoderated bulletin boards, you’ll be bombarded with responses from people pushing business opportunities that will make you financially secure, let you make money in your sleep, and all the other nonsense you see out there. The way to find what would make a good opportunity for you is to start with your own needs and interests. Figure out just how much money you need to make from a business so you have enough money to live on - and to run the business. Consider what things you like to do or have an interest in that other people have a need for and are willing to buy. Be sure you know exactly where to find those people - what it will cost you to market to them. It’s one thing to have something you think everyone will like, quite another to actually find customers who pull out their credit card or wallet to pay. If you need whatever you do to replace a full-time salary, you probably will want to start it part-time and build it up until it’s producing enough money to let you quit the day job. Posted by: Janet on May 9, 2006 at 9:48 AM I am a mother of three now and am not totally looking forward to Summer because I can’t afford Summer Camps and can’t afford gas to drive to the next state, although it’s not too far, to take them to Grandparents, to and from the gas adds up and don’t know other mothers enough to leave my kids with them. I have a home based scrapbook business that isn’t thriving because of time issues….my 2 older boys I can figure something out for them but I have a 1 year old that is in almost constant need of attention. I have a pool but I can only take 3 boys in for so long, not to mention naptime for 1 year old. I love all the ideas and will work on them but they call don’t work for me at this time…any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks. Posted by: Jeannette R. on May 9, 2006 at 2:12 PM With a one year old, about the only solution is to have someone else watch him. One of the suggestions I’ve read, which IMO is easier said than done, is to find a mother’s helper to play with the baby while you work. A young teen who could come over during the day while you are there could help entertain all of them, or at least some of them, while the older one(s) entertain themselves. I have an almost two-year-old and there is no way I could work if I didn’t have him in Mother’s Morning Out half of the day. Posted by: Lisa on May 10, 2006 at 9:40 AM It surprises me how some grandparents feel that the road only goes one way — to them. If you cannot afford to travel with three kids to the grandparents if you need the childcare help, how about they come to you? Maybe they could come to visit for a week or two a couple of times during the summer to help you out so that you can get some work done or schedule some workshops or sales calls, and to spend some time with their grandchildren too. It’s easier for two adults to travel than it is for a large family with small children. Posted by: Mary on May 10, 2006 at 10:31 AM i am seriously looking for home based job like data entry. can you assist on this. Posted by: PIUS KIPROTICH SIGEI on May 11, 2006 at 3:17 AM I’d get out the yellow pages (yes, in this case, the paper kind) and start looking for companies in your area that might need data entry- publishers, insurance companies, etc. I’d stay clear of buying any lists or servcies that promise lists of companies that hire home workers. Posted by: Janet on May 11, 2006 at 3:19 PM I am a single mother and I work full time at a demanding job. The closest family I have is 500 miles away. My 6 year old goes to daycare, but I can’t afford for my 11 year old to go to camps or the like, not to mention transporting her during work hours. Each day, I leave a list of items for her to do during the day. Some are chores around the house, but some are beneficial to her mind; research projects with power point presentations, timed reading with a report, etc. This works really well. But I could use some ideas on research projects and other projects for her to do during the summer. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Posted by: Miranda on June 1, 2006 at 7:07 PM Finding the right job has been a challege for me. But I have been thinking of starting my own home based business so I can fully manage my family and earn some income at the same time. I am a busy mom with two teenage boys who both are active with sports. I am good with computers and knows a lot about desktop publishing using MS-Office software. I have fun doing it during my “spare time”. I am not sure if it is a smart thing to do and I am a bit nervous about doing it. And where do I start? Any suggestions? Posted by: Ellen on July 6, 2006 at 10:59 AM Ellen, Look in your public library or bookstores for books on starting businesses. You might also want to order my book, The Home Office There are also courses and things like that out there for starting a virtual assistant business -but if you’re resourceful, you can pick up enough information to get started from a few books. Your initital customers are likely to be self-employed professionals (people who are successfuly self-employed and need someone to help do work they no longer have time to do), and other small business owners. Chambers of Commerce and other small business network groups can be helpful finding customers for this type of business. Good Luck! Posted by: Janet on July 6, 2006 at 12:09 PM I am a mother with 8 children. My goal in my school time is to become a teacher. Now I am studing at Tafe for my Cert III in Childcare and wanting to work in a Centre to care for children. My problem is that I have babies that are 8 months old. I dont have time to go to work. My other interest is that I am a mother with lots of talents and interested in quilting, sewing, making chusion cover, tye dying, crochet. I myself design my own patterns and finish with a great work. I want to be at home with my children and start my own small business, but I dont how to start it. Any suggestion would greatly be appreciated. Thank you Posted by: Tinika on August 24, 2006 at 12:16 PM Gee, 8 children including 8-month old babies is work enough all by itself for a couple of people. Are there consignment shops you could have resell your craft items for you? That might be a way of making money until your children are older. Another option might be to try selling them on eBay. Posted by: Janet on August 25, 2006 at 8:45 PM I am a mom of two I have been working in a call center and the hours are just not working with my families needs. I want to start a scrapbook store online it will be a mixture of making gift scrapbooks for other and selling scrapbook materials for the ones would want to do it themselves. I enjoy scrap booking and I want to be able to stay home with my children but I don’t know were to begin as far as what supplies should I start with first and offer. Any ideas that could help me would be greatly appreciated. Thank You Posted by: Terria on October 3, 2006 at 4:32 PM Don’t buy supplies before you have customers! Selling through an online store or selling through eBay won’t guarantee that people will buy from you - or even find you. So, you don’t want to run up a huge bill for supplies that you may never use or sell. There are some other things you need to consider, too. If you are going to buy supplies to resell, you’re going to need a sales tax number to buy the supplies without paying sales tax on them. Then you need to collect and remit sales taxes on the purchases from customers in your own state. (You need to do that if you sell any ready-made products as a business, too.) Once you are ready to sell, you might want to look to see if there are any direct selling companies that pay you a commission to sell their scrapbooking products. Or if you can find manufacturers that would drop ship products to your customers for you. (That means you send them the order and they ship it to your customers). But don’t invest a lot of money in supplies until you know you can find customers. Posted by: Janet on October 3, 2006 at 6:15 PM Hello, I work full-time at home. In my 900 sq foot home, and my desk is in my bedroom. I have a 2 year old daughter, 5 month old daughter and a 12 year old son. I also watch my friends 5 yr old son all day. I need some advise to keep them entertained all day while I work as much as possible. The TV is on all day and I know that can’t be good. I just don’t know how to keep them entertained. Please help me… Posted by: Sarah on January 22, 2007 at 12:37 PM |
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Work At Home Parents, Summer, Kids
You’ve presented several good ideas about how to handle working at home with kids around. I think that waking up early and getting the bulk of your work done before everyone else wakes up is key. Also, it’s important to let your kids know that occasionally you will have to spend time on work rather than with them. If they’re old enough to attend school during the year, then they should be old enough to entertain themselves for a while.
Posted by: panasianbiz on May 5, 2006 at 6:14 PM