Working from home is a blessing, to be sure. It's great to be a parent and get to actually witness the times in your child's (or teen's) life firsthand. We tend to be pretty organized, out of necessity, and we tend to believe our kids so we don't become that parent. We can tell what our families need vs. what we just want, and we can tell when something's out of sync. Inside info, who wouldn't want it? Whatever your belief system was going into your current work at home situation, I'd bet you've learned a thing or two about a thing or two. I know I sure have.

When I worked out of the home, I was a single parent raising three boys on an hourly wage. I had tried various work at home systems, like Amway, Beauty Control, Mary Kay, Nikken, and others, but the investment before I could make enough money to survive always strangled me right out of business. When I met Mr. Wonderful, he had a great job and two daughters and we decided with five kids it was just better for me to be home with them. I got into every volunteer thing I could imagine because I thought it was good to be active and involved. And then one day I realized I had totally missed the point.

I gave myself to my family full time when my oldest was a sophomore. By the time my second graduated, I had started taking my writing seriously. I mean, where was I going to earn enough income to continue parenting my remaining three so that by the time they graduated I could launch some career independence?

The school of hard knocks, that's where.

I learned that it was noisy when I needed to be able to concentrate. I learned that for every one child home, they have a friend so you might as well double the numbers. I learned that the minute I wasn't focused on them, they had become absolutely incapable of anything I had taught them. Problem resolution, laundry, pitching in domestically, and anything that needed to be put on a calendar went right out the window. They needed me, they needed me now, and they really didn't see the point of me writing all day, anyway, what was that all about?

Staying positive and encouraging was, and is, a constant endeavor. The parent in the home really does set the mood. When I'm irritated or irrational, watching my family is like looking in a mirror at all the things I need to teach them about responses to stress and disappointment. I can see them respond to things like I do, and that gives me something to work on.

It was hard at first, and I'm glad I stuck it out through the hard stuff. I'm down to one remaining child at home, and although he's been a handful, at fifteen he's pretty darn capable. He's the only one who has grown up with me working in the home, so he understands that I need him to respect that lifestyle choice. The rest of them still come around now and then and I have to drop what I'm doing to find out what they need. But I GET to do that. Totally different emphasis. I'm so glad I get to do something for a living that allows me to be flexible enough to continue parenting.

Because we're never really done...