The year was 2009. I had given birth to my blue-eyed baby boy and was contemplating returning to the classroom full-time. The thought of leaving my little angel (and of having to shower before 6am) was daunting, so during an early morning feeding, I Googled “teach from home” and was surprised that there was actually an option to do just that.
Fast forward a few years and here I am, a full-time-work-from-home-mommy-teacher. On paper, the gig is amaze balls: I make my own schedule and earn a paycheck AND get to hang with my kids. Perfection, right?
If you were any more wrong you would be Representative Todd Akin talking about how babies are made.
I don’t know if the following would have changed my mind and sent me running back to a traditional classroom, but it sure would have been nice to have a heads up:
1. My home office, on which I spent countless hours and dollars decorating and organizing, is a joke. Floor to ceiling shelves? For what? On any given day, this is my office:
2. The basket of quiet toys intended to keep the kids quiet during my meetings and conference calls was accepted as a challenge. I anticipate the banging of wooden puzzle pieces will soon replace the traditional pots and pans on New Years Eve.
3. No one believes I actually work. My mom calls 46 times a day and always begins the conversation with, “Are you busy?” Nope. Not at all. Just pretending to be employed while simultaneously building a Lego bridge as per usual.
4. Working at home creates twice the clutter at twice the speed. This one seems like a no-brainer now, but when I signed up to be a WAHM, I envisioned I would dedicate part of my day to housework. Adorable, right? In reality, I have zero time for anything but work. Which brings me to…
5. Mommy Guilt. Oh, the guilt. Some days I would rather work in a classroom just so I don’t have to look at my children’s sweet faces as I tell them, yet again, “I’m sorry, Mommy can’t _____ right now.” Then, when I hear the kids playing make-believe at their Fisher Price laptops telling each other they’re busy, it makes me want to cry.
6. He doesn’t say anything because he’s either too nice or fears my wrath, but I know when my husband comes home and looks around, he instantly wonders, “What the hell has she done all day?!”
7. My shoe collection is all but obsolete. I used to own a pair of heels in every color for every occasion. I loved my shoes. I was known for my shoes. Now, I’m either rocking slippers or flip-flops, and I’m still on the sad pathetic hunt for the perfect boot.
8. Other stay-at-home moms constantly want to have playdates. Just like my Mom, they either don’t understand or believe that I work from home. Mostly, though, I’m grateful to have the work to fall back on because I find it difficult to explain that I don’t want to be their friend and I can’t stand their kids, and this makes running into them at the supermarket a little awkward.
9. I’m constantly having to explain what I do:
You teach?
Yes.
From the computer?
Yes.
You don’t know your students?
Not really.
Every kid should be forced to attend an actual school. This cyber thing isn’t good for socialization.
Some of my students are in the hospital or jail, so...
10. Personal hygiene has taken a back seat to, well, just about everything. Days go by and the caterpillar on my face, otherwise known as my eyebrows, isn’t maintained and I don’t realize it until it starts to grow over my eyes. There are days where I don’t make it back upstairs after breakfast to brush my teeth until it’s almost lunchtime.
Three kids and many years later, I’ve only found one thing really staves off the complete chaos that is working from home: lower standards. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for my weekly bath.
Monobrow is in for 2013. That is good news for you 🙂
That’s DEFINITELY good for me. Now when do the under eye bags come back into style? 😉
YAY!! A comment AND I got an e-mail notification! You are proof that I’m “fixed,” or at least my site is. THANK YOU!!!! (and it’s great to see your name again!)
It’s a good thing the Monobrow is in because I’ve been sporting mine for years!! Anyways, I so enjoyed reading this blog post because my blog has literally become my job!! (I do sponsored posts and other social media jobs.) I can so relate to so many things you posted on here. The good news is that office you created is tax deductible. Hope you took advantage of that, if not, you may want to consider doing an audit on your taxes.
Second thing, I home school my kids,and we LOVE it and won’t change it. We love our teachers we interact with through Connections Academy. I feel so blessed to be able to work with them even if we only really have contact with each other maybe twice a month and most of those times are only because the school makes us do it.
Third thing, I know what you mean by everyone thinking you have all the time in the world to do their bidding. They tend to forget what your doing home. I know my family forgets that 1.) I home school three kids (yes, my 1 year old is in her own little “classes” throughout the day too.) 2.) I also do earn income online in various different forms!
So, I’m so utterly glad we connected tonight. I actually do treasure every one of my connections and try to gain relationships with everyone. I hope we’ll become friends (online.) Although, I do feel we’d have a lot to chat about in our ha, ha…spare time. 🙂
You’re so sweet–thank you for commenting! I’d love to form a network of WAHMs just so we can be a support group for one another. I know Bloggy Moms has one–we should try to get that ball rollin’!
You’re my hero for home schooling, by the way!! Keep on keepin’ on, Mama!
That sounds good. 🙂
LOL! I’m so sorry you have so many speed bumps but they make for a great blog post! 🙂 I so envy you your office, that table is to die for! 🙂
I’m just glad my butt still fits in the desk chair. Small successes 🙂 🙂
I didn’t realize were a teacher, too. I actually taught middle school math before having my kids and I too looked into teaching online, but never actually found anything that was on the up and up or was interested in me. If it isn’t too much to ask, would love to know more about where you do teach online. Awesome post and seriously very much enjoyed!! 🙂
Hey there! Yep, I’m a high school English teacher. Send me a message at whencrazymeetsexhaustion@gmail.com and we’ll chat 🙂
It’s perfect – you don’t have to memorize students’ names and no chalk dust on your clothes. (Though…I guess no one uses chalkboards anymore, right? I’m old.) I want to see a pic of you sitting at your desk! 😉
Thanks for linking up on my blog hop today!
I don’t know what happened, but you went to my SPAM folder! Sonofa! Sorry about that! My ass may or may not still fit in that desk chair…;)
I totally admire you for being a WAHM…When my son was little there is no way I could have handled trying to work while dealing with a little one at the same time 🙂
I love your office!
It’s definitely a full-time job times two! I start to envy my husband for getting to leave the house and work 🙂
I never knew there was such a thing as teaching at home. That’s pretty cool. I am NOT a WAHM (although, I’m looking into changing that really soon), but I loved this post. And even though I’m a SAHM, I, too, have to deal with finding a way to politely turn others of my kind down for a playdate. I don’t like kids….lol
If you’re a SAHM, you’re a WAHM at least in my book! Just because you don’t get a paycheck doesn’t mean you aren’t working full-time!!!! Having nice neighbors with the horrendous kids is such a sad situation. If only they could get their brats under control, we could so hang! 😉
Haha – I could have written that. Also a WAHM! I do have a proper office chair, but work on the dining room table which is completely the wrong height!
Quiet toys for conference calls DO NOT WORK. Buckets of biscuits and the Disney channel do.
As for being busy – I also live next door to my in-laws who see my new work location as a good excuse to pop by at any time of day. I am now the official agony aunt for their concerns, arbitrator for their frequent fights and somewhere to stop when they need to gossip, raise a sudden worry about my hubby’s diet, work, health . . . I kid you not, yesterday I was called to run over ‘urgently’, only to find that the life/death crisis was about choosing the colour of their new blinds.
Mummy Guilt . . . don’t even get me started
All I heard was “I live next door to my in-laws.” I’m sending you something pretty because you deserve it.
I would blog about that! but my hubby reads my posts! 😉
My husband reads mine, too!! Ooops?? 🙂
Super late response alert! I thought I was the only one who hated those play date requests. I felt like I was reading a post I wrote because this is all me! #flipflopmom #pajamasallday #tweezethosebrows #mommyguilt
What a list! I will absolutely keep this in mind before taking the plunge and be a momma. lol. Thank you for sharing!
Thank YOU for reading 🙂
I can totally relate!! I love my job teaching online and wouldn’t give it up for anything but it’s not EASY as some people think it may be. I work ALL the time. No time for housework or personal calls that’s for sure!!!