No Rest for the Weary...

I would kill for a sick day. Sure, I know people say all my days are sick days if I want them to be. Not so. When I am sick I get up and trudge over to the computer and make it happen. When you work from home you have to eat what you kill. No Work = No Pay. There is no boss to complain about or a union to fight for me, I am it...

So I certainly have to admit there is a tinge of admiration (ok, let's call it what it is, jealousy) for the folks that get a day off when they are sick. Let's be clear...I am talking PAID day off when they are sick. Or for that matter a vacation day, or a personal day or a long dead President's day or any other day that let's you reap the benefits of taking care of yourself while someone else foots the bill for a change. Often times I only know it is a holiday because the bank is closed when I get there. That is why my panties are in a proverbial bunch when I hear people trudging to work sick when they just don't have to. Did the Swine Flu (oops I mean post panic PR overhaul to H1N1) not teach you anything? Not only are you not appreciated as a hero, people like me loath you for infecting your co-workers, who infect their kid, who infects my kid, who in turn infects me. You have sick days use them. No, that does not mean play hooky and leave your co-workers in a lurch. But they call them benefits for a reason. So go benefit from having them already. I go to work sick enough for the both of us. So on behalf of all of us have-nots, please...TAKE THE DAY OFF!

"Where did you go?" Resurecting the community for the work at home professional

When I launched NetMommies in 1999 it was for purely selfish reasons. I had always prided myself on being "foot loose and fancy free" because I worked from home. It was nirvana! No clocks, no office politics, no "who stole my lunch" from the community fridge. But then the unthinkable...I got pregnant!

It wasn't unplanned. Nope, not at all. My husband and I wanted to start a family. We admired our friends with their children and walked around with a constant cartoon thought bubble above our heads where our perfect family lived. But I forgot one detail. The birth of a child meant I was inviting a permanent office mate that I was 100% responsible for. How would I maintain my professionalism with a screaming, wiggly in the background? Would I be able to juggle feedings and deadlines? Would I be considered a bad mother for putting my child in daycare when my commute is a total of eight feet?

I scoured the net for help. I not only needed a 12-step program to wean me from my carefree ways, but I needed to know that I wasn't alone. There had to be others. But finding them proved more illusive than the Loch Ness Monster or determining who left that little corner of milk in the carton and put it back in the fridge. So I made it myself and NetMommies was born.

Fast forward to today. Two children and nearly a decade later I have decided to come back to the scene of the crime relaunching NetMommies as a blog. Here I will share some of what I learned along the way and ask what I need to know. I will also share some great finds that can help finding that next opportunity easier or help you to stretch things just a little further. I will also talk about what I have learned along the way about my search for the holy grail...balancing work and family when they all live under the same roof.