How I do it

When people find out that I work full-time from home with three kids, they usually look at me aghast and say, "How do you manage to do that?"

Most of the time, it's not pretty. But there is a sort-of secret to how I accomplish it: efficiency.

Right before I had S almost seven years ago (yikes--is my child that old?!), I started working from home. I'm lucky in that I write and edit for the marketing department of a natural supplement company, which is easy to do with one or two trips to the office every month. As I've had more kids, I've learned to be more efficient. When I just had one or two kids, I could do more research on what I had to write, more notes, more brainstorming. Now, when I get an assignment, I research while T is sitting on my lap, brainstorm while I make lunch for the kids (and sometimes even right before I fall asleep at night!), and I just get it all out on the page much quicker than I used to. I just don't have time any more to dilly dally.

People at work tease me for how quickly I reply to e-mails. What they forget is that they can just walk down the hall and tell each other things. E-mails and phone calls are my only ways of communicating with people at work. And yes, I have a compulsive need to reply to e-mails right away. It's a sickness, but it's served me well so far.

As the kids get older, they play better together, and need less constant attention from me. Of course, this also increases the amount of fights and screaming (mostly from T) but all in all, these three get along pretty well together. I am ashamed to say that sometimes, my poor kids have to wait a bit for whatever it is they want, just so Mom can finish editing something or writing a sentence or even just a phrase. I remember the first time S said to me, "Mom what day is tomorrow?" "Tomorrow's Saturday." "Oh, good! That means you don't have to work and you can play with me." *Sigh.*

In the years since T joined our family, I've gone from being frustrated and depressed at feeling like this setup often wasn't working, to acceptance, to a kind of groove that works pretty darn well most of the time. Am I a supermom who somehow manages to sew my kids' clothes, put on puppet shows, and make gourmet homemade meals every day? No. But my work gets done, the kids are happy, healthy, and pretty brilliant, and my house is usually fairly clean.

At the end of the day, it really is a lot of help from above and plain luck that makes this crazy routine work. And knowing that, because we can make this work as a family, my husband is able to go to work every day and do something he loves.