Soon after I left my full-time job last year, I started working from home helping local businesses with their blogs.
This is a job that suits me well. I get to walk my son to and from school every day and spend time together in the afternoons, but with the added benefit of not going bat shit crazy bored with just myself and The Real Housewives for company.
Plus I LOVE blogging. And, it keeps me in shoes.
However, when you work from home, for yourself, you can’t just take a whole week off. Even if it is half-term. You have to find a way to juggle all of your balls, all at the same time, without dropping a single one.
Enter the Grandparents.
A 2-day sojourn to sunny Essex meant we could go to the Gruffalo Trail, visit the Sealife Adventure Centre and play on the beach; but also gave me a couple of hours break from fetching drinks/snacks/iPads/remote controls/colouring pads, so I could get my head down and do some work.
Until later that evening when my Dad opened the Barolo and my productivity went significantly downhill from there.
The cinema usually proves ample opportunity to catch up on emails… and twitter… however, it is harder than you think it is to not type POO when you hear the 4-year old next to you loudly announce that he needs to go for one.
My failsafe plan of tiring him out with a bike ride in the park before then providing him with precious Netflix time on the iPad, was completely scuppered when he decided he would rather stand next to me while I went on a Google hangout and give me until the COUNT OF TEN to finish.
Even unlimited access to the biscuit box could not tear him away from my side. The hangout ended with him impatiently holding a ‘Make your own Gruffalo’ kit up to the very understanding man on the screen.
While I scheduled blog posts and updated listings on one of my client’s sites, it was to the soundtrack of ‘MUMMY, PLEASE WILL YOU JUST DO THIS PUZZLE WITH ME PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE’ on repeat.
Which is why I much prefer to get a head start on the laptop before the house wakes up, as I am just too tired to look at it for anything other than season 3 of Luther post 8pm.
I understand this is not for everyone, but my favourite hour of the day is from 6-7am when all is quiet. However, having to juggle work with fun stuff for a 4-year old to do during half-term, has meant giving over my early morning ‘me’ time to sorting the laundry and unloading the dishwasher.
In fact, it is a very similar schedule to the one I was keeping when I worked full-time…
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The joys of school holidays and working for yourself! So much easier when they’re babies and can be left to their own devices for a while, or when they’re a bit older and will sit and watch films back-to-back. Give him another couple of years and you’ll have a bit of peace for a while.
Half term is so hard isn’t it. I’m glad I just have my own blogs to deal with. It doesn’t matter how early I get up my kids just get up too so that doesn’t work for me.
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I do find I have to tiptoe down the stairs because mine will be up as soon as he hears me!