GUEST BLOG: Getting the Best of Both Worlds

Today's guest blog is from my good friend Jen, who is a freelance writer for the Boston Globe. She somehow manages to work out of her house, squeezing interviews in between her 15-month-old son's naps and her 3.5-year-old daughter's mornings at preschool.

First of all, thanks to Heidi to offering us moms a forum to vent. Each day, we all do the best we can to balance our work and families.

Right now, I feel pretty lucky to have the best of both worlds -- I’m still able work but I get to do it at home.

Sometimes, the biggest challenge of the day is finding the mute button on the remote fast enough when the phone rings so the town official on the other end doesn’t hear Dora the Explorer on the TV or my 15-month-old blabbering, “hi, hi, hi,‘’ in the background.

After my second child, I decided I wanted to stay at home with the kids. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to not make any money so I work part time, mostly for the Globe.

I try to do most of my writing in the evening when the kids are asleep but first I need to do the interviews. That’s the tough part. Sometimes, I can also do these in the evening but inevitably I need to talk to sources during the day.

This means squeezing in telephone interviews while the two kids, Abigail, 3 and Benjamin, 1, are tearing around the house, making demands for juice, lunch, books, toys, or just attention in general.

I do my best to make phone calls while the baby is napping, but I can’t control when the sources call me back. Of course, more often than not, they call back after naptime. Have you ever tried to keep a 15-month-old quiet? Doesn’t happen. At least not with this chatter box.

Abigail is old enough to have some rules -- when I’m on the phone, she needs to be patient and wait until I’m off. Sounds good in theory, right? Yeah, she’s 3. Doesn’t always work. Then the worst moment of my day is when I lose patience with the 3-year-old for not being patient while I’m working.

So, yeah, it’s pretty hard.

But I’m also very lucky. Many of the folks I talk to for my Globe stories know my situation and are very supportive when they hear one of the little ones in the background. They often ask how the kids are and whether it’s a good time for me. Many of the women in fact have been in the same boat or are envious that I’m able to be with my kids all day while still working.

And that’s really what it’s all about for me.

I know I won’t miss any of Ben’s new words, I can pick up and drop off Abby at her half-day pre-school, and take them to the lake in the middle of the day.

My husband has said he’ll swap places with me if I’d rather work outside the home full time.

Not a chance.