Why Two Work From Home Moms
are Better than One

How to get FREE Day Care and Increased Productivity
at the Same time.

By Ellen Shirley for Work-from-Home.org

One of the challenges facing parents that work from home with young children is that the children may be too distracting for parents to work, or they may make so much noise that the parent is just not able to communicate with clients, vendors and co-workers, especially by phone.

Phone communication is a heavy part of working at home. You can’t even get many work from home jobs if you can’t guarantee a quiet space in which to conduct phone work.

So what is a parent to do? On the one hand you can’t afford to turn all your income back over to day care, on the other hand you need peace and quiet in which to work.

Older kids can be taught to be quiet during certain times and only to disturb mom or dad in an emergency. But little kids and infants must be watched.

There’s no law that says you can’t work from home AND have a babysitter at the same time, and if your babysitter is used exclusively for the purpose of allowing you to work, his or her fees may be tax deductible. If your income is high enough you can hire someone to come in and watch your kids while you’re working and that may offer a partial solution, but the best babysitter in the world can’t guarantee that a baby won’t cry and if you don’t have your own home office, you still may not have a good solution, even with the extra expense.

Enter work from home mom number two… on a big white horse.

Two work at home moms can work together to solve each other’s problems. Mom number one can watch the kids at her place each morning, and mom number two can watch the kids at her place in the afternoons. This way, each mom gets a full half day in which to work from home completely undistracted and in total silence. This valuable time, coupled with the bonus times that come from nap time, can add up to quite a productive work schedule. Any more than that may not be realistic for parents of young kids, anyway. Let’s face it, parenting is also it’s own full time job.

You can further juggle your work load so that you’re doing your phone work during the times you have alone, and doing paperwork or other non-phone-work when you have the kids.

To find a work from home arrangement like this with other parents, advertise in your apartment building or neighborhood. Be mindful of security. Advertising in church bulletins and communities is also very effective because there are typically lots of parents that want to homeschool and/or work from home like you do.

Chances are that the mom you find is going to be just as happy as you are about the idea and you’ll both be very grateful that you hooked up with each other.

Please note that this information is not intended to give financial, tax or legal advice. Please consult a competent professional with questions about tax, finances or other such issues.