I’ve always wanted this. The freedom to work anytime I please and the chance to spend more time at home with my family. This is it! I am officially a work-from-home mom! Starting this week, I get to spend everyday working online, looking after my daughter, going to the market, cooking meals, cleaning up the house, and all that jazz. It might sound overwhelming, but thanks to my ever caring husband, I’ve got help available around the house.
Before Stan and I decided for me to start working home-based, I already had things going easy for me. With an office that’s about a two-minute walk away from home, I didn’t have to worry about traffic, time for travel, and my commute fare. I get myself ready an hour before work and I don’t even have to worry to much about my office attire, because as long as you look decent, you’re good to go.
More Time with Stacee
Stacee had a nanny. She was good enough as a nanny gets. But there are just some issues about her that Stan and I have had enough of. We did appreciate how hard she works when she’s in the mood. But.. well, I don’t want to elaborate on this for now. Just that we now decided to sever her ties with us.
Now that she’s away, we though it better that I just stay at home. Stan still got Stacee a nanny, his cousin, who would be fond of playing with our daughter. That was something that her old nanny didn’t like doing with her. I still get to know what Stacee does, what she eats, drinks, watches, reads, plays with, touches, and so on. So, I’m glad that I get to be 90% hands on with her now (unlike before when I was only about 50%).
I also get to look after her during her two-hour day care class. It’s fun to watch what she gets to do and be able to see her in action at school. She might not yet have a great attention span (she’s just three) when it comes to the lessons, but she still does well enough for a “saling-pusa”.
More Time for Stan
Now that I work from home, I get to work flexible hours. Working on a different shift from that of Stan’s makes it difficult for us to spend some quality time together. Sometimes, he does his best to take me out on a date, a dinner, or a movie, but I know that he feels tired so I don’t really get to enjoy as much because I tend to worry about him. But now, we won’t have to worry about conflicting schedules as I can go out on a date with him anytime he wants us to.
Also, with me being at home at most times, I get to look after his needs. I also get to spend more time talking to him and sharing stories with him, which we both enjoy doing. I get to cook for him now because when I was working, it used to be the other way around. He mostly did the shopping and the cooking even if he’s tired after a day’s work. So now I get to return the favor.
More Time at Home
It’s really different to be the one in command of your own home. It’s different if you let a helper do all the house chores for you. If you are looking for something at home, you need to ask the helper. You need to adjust to how the helper does the work at home. You also need to constantly make sure that they’ve done their job well enough.
We only had one helper/nanny at home because our house is small and we didn’t really have many chores to let them handle. In fact, she only does work in the morning and she’s free to do what she likes the rest of the day. We actually got so lenient with her. Anyway, what I was trying to say is now, I know how things are done at home because I get to do some of the house chores myself.
Flexible Work!
This is the cherry on top of the ice cream tower! I don’t have to follow a strict 8-hour login. I just work anytime I want to and just make sure that I meet or exceed the quota and the quality that is expected, then I’d be good for the day. If there’s a chance for me to keep a home-based job for good, I would!
It’s a good thing that I signed up through Odesk. I did have hesitations working from home but when a friend of mine referred me to my first freelance job (the one for Consumer Affairs), I’m just glad that I took it. And now, I just got into Thumbtack and I’m about to start training with them next week.
So far, everything’s going as we’ve planned. I’m just hoping that everything goes smooth sailing from here on. I just feel so blessed and thankful for having been given this gift and passion in writing that I get to earn a living and support my family while doing what I love to do. Plus, I get to do it all at the comfort of my own home.
Cheers,
Mrs. Leality
Christine Joy Leal 
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