ADVICE RATING |
 5.00 (Highly recommend) from 6 votes (102 Visits) |
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If You Have to Work But Still Want to Stay Connected to Your Kids |
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by jenlemen  (August 2007) (rank 19th) |
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Re: what can i do to be happy away from my kids?
Asked by
mdthom
Question:
since i made the huge mistake of returning to work too soon, i cant stand to be away from them at all. i know this isn't healthy.
i wasnt like this before going back to work, so now i want to make up for lost time. and i still wan tthat missed time back-i know it wasnt much in the grand scheme-but i don't care. any thoughts? please! enlighten me
My Advice:
I'm a work-at-home mom who is holed up in her studio much of the day. I sometimes get this angst about working all the time (when you work at home you never leave your office!) and miss spending time with my kids and hanging out with them. Here's the list I'm working on right now to make things better.
- Bring great pictures of our kids to your office. Right now I have a lot of art my kids have made for me in my office. I look at it often and it keeps me going.
- Talk on the phone. I'm training my kids to be phone chatters! ;) So far, so good. I figure conversation is the best way to keep our relationships going.
- Make plans to look forward to on the weekend. At least with this one we can all have something to be excited about when we are apart. My husband and I have been talking about this more since the summer ran away from us with our work schedules and we hardly spent any time with our kids.
- Start scheming about another job/another way to make money that lets you be with your kids more. This one is tricky, but it can happen with creativity and persistence. Working at home can be a drag, but I am much closer (in proximity) to my kids and that helps a lot.
- Get a kid mailbox and write notes back and forth. We went through a phase where my daughter left notes for my husband in a shared indoor mailbox. He was working so much, that they hardly got to see each other. This helped them not only feel connected but gave her a record of their relationship during a hard time.
- Utilize technology--camera phones, IM and email can be great. My daughter is eight now and email is quickly becoming her preferred mode of communication. It would be much better to have long hours to hang out with her, but in the interim these quick sweet exchanges are very sweet.
I hope that helps a little! I bet Minti parents have tons more good ideas to add in the comments below! :) Good luck.
