Re: Work At HOME ?
I don't always work at home, but my cherub is now quite good at "helping" Mum at work! As well as doing the bookwork for our cattle property, I run a small cleaning business and am very choosy about the contracts I choose! I clean the local Health clinic 5 days a week and the Police Station 3 times a week. I also take on housing vacate cleans and builders cleans. This means it is quite flexible. My husband is on call 24/7 and I can't rely on him being home. This means that the cherub comes with me in the afternoons when I clean the Clinic. They have a good stash of kids books, colouring pencils and colouring sheets. They also have a TV with DVD player. I pack a snack and vary activities for her to do while I'm working.She has a couple of small "jobs " that she likes to do. It takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours per afternoon. Three nights a week I go cleaning again after the cherub is in bed and if my husband is home. I take my mobile and if he gets called out I go home before he leaves. I can finish off anything in the morning or if worst comes to the worst....it just doesn't happen! When I take on anything else( I tend to limit this as otherwise poor Katie would lose the plot ....NO MORE CLEANING MUMMY!!!!!) I take Katie's portable DVD player, I borrow some new puzzles or toys from the mobile toy library, take pencils and paper, sticky tape etc and take an esky with some fruit and snacks. I make sure we have one on one play time for the first 2 hours in the morning 6-8 a.m then we head off to work. I gauge how she is going and if she is ready for a sleep after 3 hours, we head home. If she is happy for 4 or 5 hours I keep going.I constantly chat with her and I take breaks and play with her .I make sure I only charge for the hours I am actually working.If we have had a big day, I don't take her to do the clinic, but hope that hubby will be home( fingers crossed!) so I can do it after she is asleep. If all else fails, we go early in the morning! FLEXIBILITY is the key! if all else fails and everything goes to hell in a handbasket, both the Clinic and the Police Station are very understanding!!!! If I know I have a big job to do, I make sure that it is understood that it won't be done in one or two days ( last one which I finished today was 40 hours which I did over a week and a half and just got stuck in on the weekend when hubby was actually home!) If we have been going to work for 3 days in a row, we take a morning off and go to the pool or the library or SOMETHING so that Katie doesn't get really over it.
It means we have the best of both worlds....lots of time together, extra income, not trying to find childcare( there is none where I am!!!!)
PS: I also do some editing and book writing in all my spare time...bah hah...slow going, but have recently taking on a history book for the local school!
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is to try and help keep everyone else on minti a little bit more sane than I am... mind you, with the way my mind is, that's not hard to do! But I don't get paid for that either. 
