My Job: Problogger, Freelance Writer, Work at Home Mom

I am employed full time (well, more than full time, if such a classification existed) even though I work from home. My job title reads: business owner, problogger, editor, freelance writer, and work at home mom (WAHM). When I tell people I work from home and that I’m the editor and blogger, I’m often asked, “Do you actually get paid for that?”, “But do you get any money from it?”, “But you don’t have a real job other than that, right?”
It can be hard for people to understand that working from home is real work.  Jennifer at Network Blogging Tips inspired this article when she wrote Typical Conversations I Have. Her article is about friends and family not understanding that as a full-time blogger and WAHM, she does have a real job. Writing online is just as important as writing for paper print (e.g. magazines, newspapers, etc.), and a writing job has just as many responsibilities as any other job.
It is a difficult and delicate issue for WAHMs to set boundaries with their space, their time and their priorities. If you are currently a work at home parent (this includes dads), you can understand Jennifer’s frustration when people say, “You’re lucky you don’t have a real job”! Just because you don’t commute doesn’t mean you don’t work hard in your own home office. The work is even harder for parents who don’t use childcare, because the interruptions from kids are constant and unavoidable.  This brief guide should help both those of us who are WAHMs (and dads) and those friends / family members who love us but just don’t understand yet!

Establishing Understanding and Boundaries For Working at Home

For Bloggers / Freelancers / WAHMs (and Dads)

1. Be patient. With time, either they’ll understand or they won’t. Don’t spend time worrying about it though – use that time productively!
2. Set clear boundaries for outsiders (people outside your house). Let people know very clearly the days/hours you work and that when you are working, you can’t be doing other things. If you don’t call your friends while they’re at work and expect them to drop everything and chat, why should they expect that of you? Drop in visits, phone calls, outings, play dates, IM chats: all these activities are distractions which mean work doesn’t get done. Nicely but firmly remind people that you have deadlines, which aren’t met if you can’t do your work in the allotted time.
3. Set clear boundaries for INSIDERS (this means your children and spouse). Just because you can see mommy (or daddy) doesn’t mean she’s available to play! Be clear about designated work times. For younger children, a helpful tool is a kitchen timer. Turn it to set an hour, or whatever time you’re setting aside, and let your child know that while the timer is going mommy has work to do. When it goes off, you can take a break together to do something fun before the next work segment. As with all new routines, this may take a while to get comfortable. For your spouse, you may need to gently remind that when you are in a certain location (in your office, at your desk) or during designated times, you’re working and are unavailable. Of course, uninterrupted mommy time means more of a happier mommy to go around later (who is not worrying about missing a deadline!).
4. Refer people to your finished product. Send them to your site so they can see and experience what your time goes towards building. It may help them to link something tangible to the intangible concept of you “working at home doing writing.”

For Friends and Family of Bloggers / Freelancers / WAHMs (and Dads)

1. Publishing online is equivalent to publishing in paper print (magazines or newspapers). It is just as important and takes as much (or more) time and effort.
2. Never say that working at home is not a real job! If your loved one spends their precious time and energy doing it, then it’s a job to them, whether or not it’s financially successful yet! They need your support and understanding to succeed.
3. Respect boundaries. Since working at home is a real job, your loved one has certain days and hours they designate as work times. Find out what they are and respect them. That means don’t drop in unannounced, call for chats, pop up an IM window, or ask them to babysit during those work times! I’m guessing they don’t ask you to use your vacation time at work to do those kinds of things, so practice the golden rule.
4. Understand deadlines. Deadlines are deadlines, whether you set them for yourself or someone else sets them for you. Respect your loved one’s need to get things done when they say they will, and don’t ask them to rearrange deadlines for you just because you think they should be able to.
4. Check it out for yourself. If you don’t understand what your loved one does, ask if you can see the finished product. Visit their website and read some of their articles, their books, or watch their videos.
Working at home is a different kind of arrangement which can take some getting used to by all parties involved. With clear boundaries, patience, and willingness to understand, everyone can be happier with the situation!