Five Bits Of Advice For A Sane Work-at-home-mom Experience

Working from home is a mother's dream come true. No more need to panic when a child is sick or has a day off from school. If you're a tad late in the morning, no one cares. If working overtime comes to pass, no worry. All together working from home is a pretty neat thing to do.

Then there's that little thing called reality. One of the first things I learned when I started working from home was that summer, when all of my kids were home during the day and didn't want to be (home, that is), was a whole new adventure. Suddenly I couldn't just drop them off at the sitter's and enjoy eight quiet, blissful, uninterrupted hours to concentrate on what I had to do. Instead, I was filling sippy cups, restarting cartoons and dragging my laptop to the park...and Chuck E. Cheese...and Funland...and any other place I could think of that would keep them entertained for more than half an hour so I could put a dent in my to-do list.

Working after bedtime? Forget it. I was so tired when bedtime rolled around that I had about enough energy to wash the dishes before I packed it for the night. It didn't take long to realize that something had to give, or that something was going to be my sanity. With that in mind, here are five must-have work at home tips for the work-at-home mom.

1) Get up before the kids do and get your email out of the way. Then ignore it until lunch. I'm always astonished by the amount of time I spend each day dealing with email and answering messages. Equally as astonishing is the way I can't see straight before 7 am. This is prime time for me to update my social media sites, answer my email, read the day's blogs and knock a few items off my to-do list while I ease into the day.

2) Eat Breakfast with your kids for your first break of the day. The main problem with kids underfoot while you are trying to do your work is their lack of concentration inhibits yours. You need to spend time with the kids during the day and do your work in between "kid times." Play for an hour or so, go back to work, eat lunch with the kids, go back to work and so forth throughout the day. This strikes a good balance for you, your work and your kids.

3) Do get a babysitter when it's crunch time. It might seem counter productive to hire a baby sitter while you are at home with the kids. But if a deadline nears and the little bundles of joy are acting out, you need someone to watch them so you can meet that deadline. If you send them over to a little friend's house for a play day, that would be ideal. You probably have a friend with kids with whom you could swap baby sitting hours as the need arises. If not, find one.

4) If you are lucky enough to afford time off for a vacation, leave your lap top at home. You will have to work many months before you feel you can take a family vacation, but when you can, make it a real vacation and leave all your work home. This is the time for fun with your family and some much needed R and R for all of you. The kids will be delighted that at long last they have your undivided attention, will resent your work less and it will give everybody a breather before the next inevitable onslaught of the work day routine.

5) Keep established work hours. Most kids thrive on a schedule. If you can tell them you'll be done with work by this specific time, then stick to it, they'll be more willing to entertain themselves until you're done, making working from home a more enjoyable experience for both of you-and opening the door to continued work-at-home success. Isn't that what you were going for in the first place?