Some time ago Mark Hollander from Coaching Creative Minds, in a comment on this post, asked me What advice would you offer to those individuals who work at home? They have to *force* themselves out of the house. And they…

Even writing e-mails is hard to do properly with the kids, and trying to divide time between them and work doesn’t serve my children or my clients well (though I quickly found out which clients had their own kids by how they handled interrupted calls or missed deadlines due to kid emergencies like dislocated elbows or fevers).

My kids are 1 and 3 now, and for me, work only happens if they’re at daycare, asleep, or on the rare occasions the older one is watching a movie while my wife gets the little firecracker to settle down and play quietly for a while. I totally agree that if you are home with children, some kind of helper is a must.

BTW, I’ve heard of “The Continuum Concept”, I think everyone should be aware of how much less stressful a natural setting is, but unfortunately modern business (and in my case design) isn’t nearly as kid-compatible as less technologically advanced pursuits. Too bad we can’t all live off the land and still have internet, modern manufacturing and advanced medical care at the same time!

Many of my clients who call me regularly know that I often get up in the middle of a call and make a cup of tea. I suspect from their perspective, this about the same level of disturbance. IE none at all.

It is probably unintentional but very true. The flipside is that things can get done at home and working from home does mean that I can determine when the 27 contractors arrive to do whatever it is that they are going to do.

Just to let you know, there are some cordless phones out there for Skype and the like.

Okay, so they’re basically glorified mono-headsets anyway, but might help you at least get around the place.

Or you could always get a bluetooth adapter and one of the ear-headset bluetooth mobile phone connectors.

The good part about that is that you at least get 100m worth of reach so if someones in the room with you, you can still attend to them and take your call.

Or do your filing, etc at the same time.

Anyway, I find that more useful than sitting around with a headset on and cords keeping me at arms length to the PC.

Andrew

Have you ever read the book “The Continuum Concept” by Jean Liedloff? It’s a book written by an American woman who went to Venezuela on an expedition, and ended up coming across a stone age Indian tribe called the Yequana. She was amazed that these “uncivilized” people were the happiest, most content people she had ever seen in her life, so she ended up going back and living with them for 2 and a half years in order to figure out their secret. The book is an explanation of all the things she learned about their lifestyle and values.

Anyways, the part that’s relevant is that the Yequana women have a special child rearing method whereby they continue to work while the babies are growing up, bringing the babies along for every activity, and the babies never spoil things by crying out in the way that Western babies do. Now I’m not a parent, and I’ve never tried the child rearing method outlined in the book, but it’s a fascinating read and a very inspiring book. I thought it might go along nicely with your interest in South America and Native traditions.

Cheers,

Paul

My daughter is now 8 but she knows exactly when to come and ask me if she can watch TV. She has been told over and over again that she cannot come and ask me a question, unless it is a matter of life or death, when I am on the phone. She started writing me notes instead.

I prefer other VoIP solutions and use Vonage and we’re trying out SunRocket as well. SunRocket has excellent international rates; India, in particular, is cheaper on SunRocket than Skype.

I know this won’t comfort you, but it doesn’t get any better. My son will be nine in less than two months, and I’m still “not allowed” to have an uninterrupted conversation. Someday he’s going to go away to college, and Goddess help me then, because I’m sure that I’ll have long since forgotten how to speak in complete sentences.