I Am Not Sure Why

I find that I still get damn defensive when people make comments about my not really having a job or they imply that my life is easy because we home school our kids. It just down right pisses me off though. Anyone that does home school has always said “OMG you work from home as well as home school? Are you insane?” People that work from home always say “OMG you are home schooling AND working from home? Are you insane?” Those people get it. Hell, at this point, I don’t think my hub fully understands the crap on my plate but he at least sees the stress lines on my face at night and tries to have some compassion.

When you work from home, truly work from home and don’t just bring home your brief case a day or two a week to “get things done”, you never get a break. I have email and phone calls coming in at all hours. Yes, email is ignorable as well as my phone. However, that won’t pay the bills nor will it empty the to do list. Clients are used to sending me things and having them get handled, even at night, even on the weekends and yes, even on the holidays. When you work from home, there are no breaks unless you plan them into your life, and fight like hell to keep them there. ALL THE TIME. I will rarely tell a friend that pops by that I don’t have time for them because of work. If they call or show up, and I am in the midst of something, I stop. Spend the time with them and then go back to work when I can. I don’t leave the house without my cell phone so I can monitor email. I carry my laptop on vacations. Yeah.

Now lets add home schooling into the mix. I have to plan our days just like a teacher plans to deal with 20 of their students. I go through our school books. Make lesson plans, plan out science experiments, and find cool field trips to take that go with what we are learning. Only I do it for three different grades. All. At. Once. I don’t have a per-grade team working on my lessons with me. I do it. ALONE. I spend an average of 5 hours per week on planning and getting things ready for our easy breezy home schooling. This doesn’t include the actual time we spend doing the things I plan.

THEN….lets add in the fact that I have a family of 5, several pets and a home to take care of. Laundry, meals, errands, dusting, sweeping, pet feeding, exercise, taxi playing, grocery shopping, toilet scrubbing, tub rinsing, teeth brushing, hair braiding, a shit ton of outside activities….well you get the idea.

SO….that is what I do. Here is what I don’t have to do:

I don’t have to worry about what to wear to work, punching a time clock or dealing with stupid assed co workers. I don’t have to think about overhead or travel expenses. I don’t have to think about calling in if I catch a bad cold or getting my vacations approved. I can take a long lunch with a friend…or my dog. I can work with my cat on my lap or out on the pool deck. I can take a day off if its a good beach day. I can also nurse my sick kiddo without losing a day of pay. I don’t have to wonder what they do to my kids at day care while I punch the time clock to afford my mortgage. I can have dinner on the table for my hub, who works his ass off every day, when he gets home.

I don’t have to deal with head lice outbreaks, flu or chicken pox. I don’t have to deal with the “MOM, is my blue shirt clean?” fights at 7 am. I don’t have to fight over homework or late night phone calls to get the assignment issues. I don’t have to worry about bitchy teachers or unruly classmates. I get to bake cookies while we learn fractions and be ok with calling THAT math. I don’t have to deal with snow days, hurricane days or teacher planning days putting an dent into MY schedule. I don’t have to deal with bedtimes or fight anyone to get them up in the mornings. I also don’t have to start my day by standing in the fog or the rain…or the snow, waiting for a school bus. I don’t have to deal with FCAT testing!!!!

I am not sure why it still pisses me off….but it does. You can take your “gee, you don’t REALLY work?” and your “that isn’t REAL schooling” comments and shove them up your stressed out , schedule riddled ass. Today, is a “do math at the park” day and I won’t trade my happy kids and content home for anything.

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