subject: Adjusting To Working At Home [print this page] The first benefit for most stay-at-homers is that they get to spend more time with their kids. Doing your job at home allows you to be a part of your children's routines throughout the day.
When you work from your house, you do not have to see the kids just morning, evenings, and weekends. You can take a lunch break with your toddler, or pick your kids up after school and hear all about their day.
Work-at-home parents do not have unlimited time with their kids, but they do have more frequent opportunities to be with their children. This allows you to get to know your kids better and get in that much needed time just to get to know them and what is going on in their life.
Working domestically also gives you the opportunity to increase or maintain your income. Many parents leave their job in order to spend several years raising their children.
Parents who left careers to raise children can ease their way back into the workforce by doing your job at your house. Working at home might mean taking on consulting work or starting a business, but you will still be employing a hands-on, day-to-day parenting style.
Similarly, working moms who move from an out-of-home office to telecommuting can maintain their incomes, while spending more time at your house. They can also save on many workplace costs like commuting.
This brings us to the next benefit, which is giving up the commute. When you travel to work, you are neither doing your job nor spending time with family.
Working at home eliminates this waste of time leaves more time for both. Also, not only is driving in traffic annoying, it is expensive.
You will save money on gas, public transportation costs, and/or car insurance and maintenance by doing your job at your house. In addition to saving time without a commute, you get to work more flexible hours.
This can be a life saver when you have to take care of kids. Their schedules are always changing with school, sports, clubs, and everything else, and usually that means parents need to change their schedules to accommodate.
Though self-employed people often enjoy more flexibility than telecommuting employees, they both usually have increased control over their schedules. Many who are working at home choose hours early in the morning or after the kids have gone to bed so that they can take care of the kids' busy schedules.
Telecommuters also gain a sense of control and contentment in their life. You get to make time for yourself as well as your family with the time saved by doing your job at your house.
The self-employed also gain a feeling of controlling their own life, but telecommuting employees who juggle home and work responsibilities more effectively gain a sense of balance. In addition, the income generated by working at your house can make a difference on luxuries that you might otherwise forgo.
Working at your house can also give you the chance to save money on childcare costs. This does not necessarily apply to everyone, as some parents need a child care in order to do their work while at home.
Some parents can earn a living with part-time or no outside childcare. Determining how much child care and what type of child care you need, then work that into your budget and schedule.
Doing your job domestically also allows you to escape the social dynamics of the traditional office. Some people who begin working at your house miss the social aspects of an office, but others feel the distractions of unnecessary meetings, social gatherings, or unscheduled chats at the water cooler cut their efficiency, further extending time away from family.
You also get to save money on clothes and lunches. Though it is really not a good idea to work in your pajamas, you will likely spend less on work clothes by doing your job at home.
Unless you were packing your own lunch every day, the amount of money you spend on lunches and coffee breaks will decrease. This will probably save you anywhere from $20 to $50 a week just in food.
