Work In, Work Out!

Why do so many moms want to work from home? Let me start with somewhat of a confession: I've been there done that, and I don't like it!
I've worked at home before and I loved being able to take my kids to school in the morning and then come back, make a nice cup of coffee and sit down at my computer with sun streaming through the window. I loved being able to make my favorite breakfast every day and to be able to sneak away to a yoga class in the middle of the day. I loved being able to pick up my kids from school, drive her home, and then go into the office to do more work. I loved all of this until I began to feel extremely isolated. Until even my organizational discipline began to fail and I would find myself making dinner in the middle of the day because well, I was home and I can get the crock pot started.
Until I began to despise the complete lack of separation of my work and non-work life — since my work was at home I could always be doing it, and if I weren’t doing it, I was thinking about it, my laptop luring me at all hours of the day and night. Until I realized that my favorite breakfasts were quickly followed by my favorite snacks and my favorite lunches and I was packing on some pounds. Until I became endlessly annoyed with friends and family who would call me during the day and if I didn’t pick up the phone got upset because “you’re at home, why can’t you talk?”. Until I got tired of explaining to people that just because I work from home does not mean that I don’t have a real job with real responsibilities. Until I had to leave the house every afternoon to work from coffee shops and the library because my kids playing outside became too distracting.
Yes, there are surely benefits to working from home: Flexibility, not wasting time commuting, ability to work in your pajamas on those off days when you can’t deal with getting all dressed up, and if your kids are a bit older, not having to take off when they are sick because they can watch TV while you get work done next to them. I completely appreciate those.But it’s not a perfect arrangement and telecommuting doesn’t work for everyone.
I think having the ability to work from home some of the time is a huge, huge benefit, when your kids are sick for example or when your daycare is closed or the babysitter can’t come. But my advice, learned from my own experience, is to not idealize working from home and to think very carefully about whether it’s something that will really work for you.