My son Christopher asked my husband: “Where are you going?”

DH (Dear Husband): “Crazy”

CW: “Can I go with you?”

Popularity: 33% [?]

Many people turn to a home business in an effort to be able to spend more time with their family while earning an income. While it is never easy to be a full-time working parent outside the home, it can be just as hard, if not harder, to be a full-time working parent from home.

When your family sees you at home, they may automatically feel that you are at their service. One child may need a ride somewhere, another child wants you to find something they are looking for, and your spouse wants you to run to the store and buy something for dinner. On top of all of that, you have clients expecting you to complete various projects for them, as well.

You may want to hold a family meeting and explain how important it is to your family that you have time set aside for your business. It doesn’t matter if you leave the house and work from an office, or if you work from the kitchen table, work is work. Your family wouldn’t come to an office outside the home and ask you to do all those miscellaneous tasks, working from home should be no different.

Of course, you will want to set aside time for your family, just as you would for your clients. Working from home will allow you to have a flexible schedule and that gives you the opportunity to attend school functions and other activities.

While it can be easy to procrastinate and not get your work done, it can be just as easy to over schedule yourself and spend too much time working. Your family needs to have some quality time with you; and you will need their support, too. Starting a new home business can be draining. It will be a lot easier with the support of your family.

You can also ask your family to help you with the household chores. Set up a schedule where everyone pitches in with various tasks. Depending on the age of your children, they may be able to help with things such as emptying the garbage, vacuuming, doing laundry, preparing their own lunches for school, or even preparing dinner for the family. If you have a spouse, make sure that they are involved, too.

Another option is to ask a young teenager in the neighborhood to come over and “entertain” your children while you work for a few hours. A younger teen without a lot of prior babysitting experience will charge less than an older teen. Since you will be in the house, you can take over in case of an emergency. Your young sitter can play with the kids, read stories to them, etc – and you can have three or four hours of uninterrupted work time.

Balancing work and family will never be easy, but with practice – and patience; it can be done.

Popularity: 29% [?]

So, I thought it would be really cute to ask Aimee, my four year old, to promote my business. I figured I’d end up with a sweet little commercial, featuring my darling’s voice.

OK, so the commercial did end up being cute. But not quite what I expected…

Popularity: 26% [?]

I was just thinking tonight how my attitudes about children and their behavior has changed dramatically from before I had kids to after I had them.

So, I thought I’d share a few of my observations:

Before children:
My child will NEVER do that!

After children:
All kids do that and it is perfectly normal.

Before children:
If you were a good parent, your children would behave themselves, even when you are out of sight.

After children:
Children can write all over their bodies with the permanent marker you lost underneath your office desk — in the time it takes you to pour yourself a glass of water in the kitchen.

Before children:
Children should be seen, not heard.

After children:
Children who cannot be heard are most certainly doing something they shouldn’t, like pulling the tape out of your old cassette collection or shearing their hair with the manicure scissors kept in the cabinet over the bathroom sink. Noisy children can be easily located and you can tell exactly what they are doing from the other end of the house.

What are your Before And Afters?

Popularity: 36% [?]

My whole family is coughing, snotting, snorting and hacking. Blech! The kids are on the getting better end of this bug, but I think I’m still on the getting sick end. Fortunately, Steve was off work for most of today, so I spent the day in bed sleeping and coughing and listening for helpdesk ticket notifications. Fortunately, we didn’t have anything that I needed to handle until this evening. Thank goodness for my tech staff! I don’t know what I’d do without them.

Also found out today that Jen of Four Little Ducks is sick — and she isn’t anywhere near my location. We talked abit this evening and apparently she normally gets her first winter cold in December. Mine normally happens in January — right around my mid-month birthday. Woohoo! Looks like I’m getting an early start this year, so maybe I won’t get sick on my birthday.

At any rate, I expect to be back into the swing of things within the week. I’ll have some goodies for you guys then, including three awesome search engine optimization articles at Free WAHM Stuff and a date for the Presenting Your Products teleseminar (for those of you who asked me a question on the PYP site).

So, anyone else laying in bed, thinking about all the things you need to do, but aren’t because your head is full of snot? How are you keeping things running in your business while you take a much-needed break?

Popularity: 25% [?]

My 3-year-old daughter, Aimee, is at that stage where she is amazed by everything — and talks about everything. It’s such a wonderful age, isn’t it?

So, over the past couple of days, she’s made a few comments that had us rolling — so I thought I’d share with you guys.

Yesterday, I told Aimee that my nose was running (allergy season, naturally).

Aimee: “My nose isn’t running. It’s walking!”

On the way to Grandma’s house for dinner, she noticed a crescent moon, high in the sky and said, “We’re going to the moon — to eat cheese!”

And then on the way home, my husband, Steve, said that he’d been running around all day at work like a chicken with his head cut off.

“CHICKEN!?” Aimee yelled. “OH NO! I’M GOING TO GET CHICKEN SPOTS!”

I guess if she comes down with chicken spots, there’s nothing like Happy Cakes and Hopcorn* to make her feel better.

*Otherwise known as her favorite foods, pancakes and popcorn.

Popularity: 23% [?]