Recently, one of our readers, Alicia, sent us a mail. She is a work from home mom and wants the answer to a very important question of her life. We think this is a question which every mompreneur or work from home mom faces. So, we are offering you some help here.

Image: Danielle & Lilliyan by Robert Whitehead

When you have a family and kids at home, and at the same time you’re working from home, you may find it difficult to manage your kids at home. It becomes difficult to juggle the responsibility towards their family and kids. Sometime kids invade your privacy and your home office. Here’s some advice from parents who have passed such situations.

The door

It is easy to get a door for your home office and close the door between your work hours. Should you have such a door for your home office? Should you close it, thereby dividing your house into two different camps? We understand that having the door really helps to keep the noise and disturbance out of your home office. But here comes the question- if you wanted to be away from your family all day, then why should you not go to a real office wearing your coat?

Without that door you can watch your kids grow, but your productivity may go for a toss.

Make it their office too

Try to make your home office, their place too. Your kids are sure to wander in, so have something handy for them. You can keep a toybox or get some of their toys in a corner of your home office. It allowed them to play their without much noise.  Little noise will be there as they are kids and not adults. Do this, if you want to keep them away from your computer, telephone, coffee cup, headphones etc. because everything is a toy to your four-year-old.

Pass on your old computer

If you have an old computer, then pass it on to your kids. Kids like to do the same things, and use the same things, what you’re using. It makes them happy, and all you want is to see them happy. Get some educational software and game software for your kids and they will love it.

Adapt to their schedule

If you working from home and doing web work, you’re doing it because, it is flexible. Use the flexibility to set your own hours after adapting to your kids’ schedule. There are certain hours of the day when your kids need the maximum attention and care. Offer them, that part of time. If you need to concentrate more on a particular part of your work, do it during your kids’ nap time or, while they are off at school.

A learning experience

Working from home can be a great learning experience for you with kids at your home. Kids ask different types of questions all day long. As you are working on the web, you have several great tools at your disposal. When they ask a question “how big is the world?” or “why the doggie keeps moving his tail?” use search engines, YouTube, Wikipedia, and other resources to find answers. Also use the Internet to find out various interesting things for your kids (such as sketches, images ready to be colored etc.).

Be up front with customers

If you have a kid at home and you need to talk to your customers very often, then you can let your customers know that you have a kid at home. It is better because if the customer calls up and at the same time your kid start to yell, it helps the customer to understand the situation at least for once. Just mention to your client, “Oh, I’ve got our three-year-old in the office with me at the moment.” You can always get a headset with a decently directional microphone to avoid embarrassment.

Don’t be afraid to set limits

Setting limits is very much necessary to save your whole business. Your kids should understand that you are working from home and this is no joke. If you need to have a few hours alone, close the door. Keep your visiting time in the afternoon.  

You need to balance your work and your home. If you can balance, then you can have a successful career along with the joy of raising children with your own hands.