By Sharon Davis

Today I almost rented an office.

I know, I know. How on earth could I ever consider giving up working at home?

Well, I did say, “almost.” But there are days when an office looks pretty darn good.

Because I work from my home, there are distractions and demands placed on me that just didn’t exist when I worked outside of the home.

Take today, for example. I was trying to work on a programming project that required my concentration. Of course, the kids are home from school for the summer and it seemed like every 5 minutes one of them needed me for one reason or another.

“Can I have another snack?”
“Watch me, Mommy!”
“But I’m DYING of thirst!”

You know what I mean.

I began to wonder how it would be for my husband to have to deal with these types of demands while trying to do his job.

So, I started fantasizing about his workday:

He works for the local phone company and drives one of those big trucks with the bucket that lifts him up to the tops of the telephone poles. I envisioned him up there in his bucket, needing to concentrate on which wire goes where- with the kids up in there with him.

“What’s that, Daddy?”
“Can I have a snack?”
“I have to go to the bathroom.”

So then, I thought about when I used to work in an office. I imagined being at my desk, interviewing someone, when in walks my daughter, “Mommy, will you play a game with me?”

A stage whisper conversation ensues:

“Honey, I can’t play right now. I’m in the middle of an interview.”

“But you said you’d play a game with me, and that was like 50 HOURS AGO.”

“I’ll play a game with you, but you need to wait patiently until I finish.”

“You NEVER want to play a game with me!”

At this point, I’m smiling at my interviewee through gritted teeth while I give my daughter THE LOOK.

What if I was a doctor? A surgeon?

“DON’T TOUCH THAT!”

“Mommy, would something bad happen if I accidentally dropped my gum in there?”

Suddenly, my reverie is broken my 5-year-old loudly complaining, “Mommy, Lauren burped and she won’t say ‘excuse me’!”

Ah well, I’ll just have to do that programming project some other time.

I guess the things that are most rewarding about working at home can at times be the most annoying.

It’s all in the perspective.

-- Sharon Davis, Work-At-Home expert, author and consultant, helps people to achieve their goal of working at home, telecommuting or starting a home business. http://www.2Work-At-Home.Com. List of other articles of interest: http://www.2Work-At-Home.Com/freecontent.shtml. Subscribe: http://www.2Work-At-Home.Com/subscribe.shtml

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