Working from home. I do it. Lots of people work comfortably and productively from home. There are days it’s pure awesome, and there are days I want to scream.

7 Things I love about remote working

It’s hard not to have mixed feelings on the topic, so my seven things I love about working from home are “mixed.” Wondering what that means? Keep reading!!!

Having an extremely flexible schedule.

Yes, I get to adjust my schedule to accommodate kids’ school parties, or events, or performances. Sure, I get to alter the daily routine to fit in a lunch with a friend who happens to be visiting from out-of-state, too. It’s a pleasure knowing if my kids get sick, I don’t have to call into work to tell them I won’t be in. Although, let me tell you, my boss can be quite the bitch when I inform her one of the kids is sick. She just lets the work pile up, making it so hard for me to get back on track. Oh wait, that’s me! I’m my own boss. Yeah, that’s pretty cool, too. I am my own boss.

The commute.

I get out of bed, I walk to the living room, and I sit down to start my work day over a strong internet connection. Well, I do have to get the kids to school every day, but I don’t have to get out of my pajamas if I don’t want to! However, when the kids have off from school, and I can just go right to work, it’s kind of a pleasure. Of course, then I’m dealing with the kids being home….. but they have to eat breakfast, and that gives me at least an hour to get some real work done!

No need to get dressed.

Now, I get dressed every day. There are days I have to be nicely dressed from the waist up, because I have to be on a call that requires people SEE ME. It happens, but not often. I love the fact that I don’t have to wear high heels, business suits, and stuffy clothes. I get to wear jeans, great tops, or sweaters, and killer shoes. Or I can have my pajamas on all day. It’s up to ME. No boss gets to tell me my flip flops aren’t proper office attire. I am my own boss.

Being asked to watch someone’s kids so another parent doesn’t have to use a personal day at her/his job.

Sure, by all means. Allow me to not get any work done, so that you don’t have to use your personal day over at your job. Totally makes sense to me. Are you going to pay me for the day of work I’m not going to be able to do while your kids are here? Oh, no? Well, thanks for putting me out a day of work, so you don’t have to use a personal day for your own kids. So glad I work from home FOR YOUR BENEFIT.

Being asked “What do you do all day?”

Yeah, nothing. I sit on my ass, in front of the television and I eat Bon-Bons. Do they still have those? Chocolate covered ice cream balls. Pure awesome, right? Sorry to disappoint you, but from the moment I drop my kids off at school, until I pick them up in the afternoon, I work SIX HOURS without stopping. Occasionally, I’ll get up to pee, or to get something to eat out of the fridge. Between writing, webinars, reading tons of resource materials, learning new skills, and conference calls….. it’s a lot. I also have to fit in social media, which is MY JOB, not just something I do to pass the time, or avoid doing things around the house. Trust me, if I won the lottery, sitting on my ass all day would be my preference. However, I live on Long Island and Mama’s gotta work.

Hearing “it must be nice to be able to work from home, so you can get housework done while you’re home.”

What? How is that lucky? I’ve got piles of laundry, dishes in the sink, and my floors are in desperate need of a good vacuum and steam clean. I wouldn’t even ask about my bathrooms. I barely have time to get up during the day to PEE, let alone throw a load of laundry into the washing machine! Just like almost everyone else, housework gets done late at night, or over the weekend between activities and outings.

Always being told how much easier it is to work from home, than having to go to an office.

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side, isn’t it? Work is work, whether you’re in an office, or you’re at your home. Seriously. There’s no real difference. Well, there’s a difference: people in an office get to LEAVE the work behind at the office, and my office is in my living room, and I don’t get to leave it anywhere. 24/7 work schedule. It’s the price work at home people pay to have the flexibility we have.

Yup, it’s got benefits, and it’s got downfalls. It’s all in how you look at it, right? If I had my way, I’d be traveling all the time and be a digital nomad entrepreneur. There’s always something we’d rather be doing, it’s human nature. And we all think someone else’s work situation is “greener”.

With lots of doubts creeping into my head, I found that even though I had done my time and committed to educating myself so I could work from home whilst raising my kids, I felt like maybe people were right that I “got lucky”. It took a lot of the wind in my sails… and I had to overcome that imposter syndrome the crept in when people had something ignorant to say to me. Need some help battling the negative mindset of imposter syndrome? Start with Overcome Imposter Syndrome today.