Managing Kid's Sick Days When You Work from Home

by Kori Rodley Irons | More from this Blogger

08 Jan 2007 09:49 AM

Years ago, I was chatting with another parent at the school and we were talking about what a pain it was for working parents when kids got sick and had to stay home from school. She said that at least I had a flexible schedule, even working from home part of the time so it must be a breeze for me when kids had to stay home due to illness. Uh...no. I actually found it to be easier to juggle work and family life when I had to work outside the home and could have a "back-up support person" stay with my children when they were sick. As anyone who's running a business from home can tell you, trying to accomplish work and take care of a sick child can be challenging and daunting!

Of course, things depend on how "sick" the child is--sick enough to be in bed snoozing and moaning, or sick with the sniffles and going stir crazy because they have enough energy to be up and want to do things. Either way, it's tough to manage a typical work day with a sick child to look after as well. Do you try to work in the same room with your sick child? Try to get them set up with something to do so you can snatch some work time? What do you do when you sneak off to make an important work call and the loud, "Mom, I've just thrown up!" comes echoing through the house? It doesn't exactly make for a very professional presentation. Heaven forbid you actually have meetings or client calls scheduled for the day your child falls ill as you'll be evaluating whether to cancel and reschedule or somehow try to keep the meeting.

I found it used to help to have a special box with "sick activities"--games, art supplies, movies, books, etc. that were only used when there was an illness. Of course, if a child is sick for several days, the special box gets just as boring as everything else. In the end, managing sick days when you run a home business is incredibly individualized--based on the business, the parent, the child and the illness. I'd be interested in hearing how other parents who work from home and manage their own businesses juggle things when their child becomes ill...any tricks, advice, or stories to share?

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