Freelancing in Real Life

Working at home has been great. Minimal overhead, easy commute, and access to lots of good food at all times. Some days it can get a little bit crazy and dramatic, though.

Luckily most of us have other options to escape the days that are like this: Coffee shops, library, and [hopefully soon for me], a co-working space.

If you work from home, does it feel like Grey’s? Or maybe Seinfeld? Or even A-Team?

It’s all fun and games until someone pees their pants.

I like to keep it real here on AnywhereMan. I don’t want you getting any inaccurate ideas about the Anywhere Lifestyle and what it entails for me.

I’ve mentioned in the past that one of the things that has been nice about working from home is the ability for my wife to leave during the day if she needs. Today she had some errands to run including dropping daughter #1 off at pre-school. She asked if I’d be able to keep an eye on daughter #2 for a few hours.

Easy. Piece of cake.

Until five minutes after the departure of my beautiful bride.

I went downstairs to my office to check on something and right way I hear my daughter in the kitchen yelling “Pottie! Pottie!”

Seriously, FIVE MINUTES after her mother left.

Anyways, at least it was just pee. Kudos to my wife who deals with this stuff on a daily basis, but I’m trying to run a business here!

Reminder to myself: It’s a home first. My family’s home. Everything else, including a career, is second to that.

Image via Wikipedia

Working from home is usually great. It’s nice to simply walk upstairs to have lunch with my family. Having the flexibility to get some work done after-hours is awesome.  Having my kids knock on the door and tell me about their latest accomplishment is priceless.  Most days I can honestly say that there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

Today is not one of those days.

My wife and I returned from our trip to Florida earlier in the week and we were blessed to have family pitch in and watch the kids while we were gone. Everyone said the girls were pretty much angels. While I love to hear that, what it means is that they’ve actually stored up all their naughtyness for our return home.

Screaming.

Crying.

Fighting.

And more screaming.

It’s downright awful. I feel bad for my wife who has to deal with it the most, while I lock myself in my office in an attempt to get work done.  But my door can only block out so many decibels, and have moved to my favorite wifi hotspot for the afternoon. Now I’m trying to get some programming done and drinking a delicious Newcastle Brown Ale in an attempt to get back to the low level of stress I attained with a week away. Serenity now!

I really have no great profound advice to go along with this post, just that the flexibility we have to work from Anywhere (home) also gives us the flexibility to escape a temporary nightmare (aka hectic environment) with minimal consequences.  In other words, if you need to get away, have a beer, and get work done…do it!