Thursday 25 April 2013

What Do You Do All Day??



by Valerie Mann

I know this will strike a nerve with many authors, stay-at-home moms and telecommuters. But if you fall into one or more of these categories, you’ll relate.

How many times have you heard this:

**What do you do all day? 
**Since you don’t really work, can you drive me to the doctor/babysit my kid/hang out? 
**I know you have free time, so can you make six dozen cookies for the bake sale/volunteer at church/pick any random job 
**Seriously, what do you do all day since you don’t work?

Here’s what I do all day:

Work (yes, I do and I get paid for it)
Homeschool a reluctant teenager
Babysit the husband who also works from home
Play dish fairy (because everyone thinks a fairy does them, so who am I to wreck their fantasy?)
Play laundry fairy (the dish fairy’s kissing cousin)
Feed the cats
Let the cats in and out. And in and out. And in. And out.
Work
Water the garden
Run errands
Work
More fairy duties
Housework that I can’t ignore because the Hoarders producers might find out how we really live
More work

And tell me why I feel guilty if I sit down to watch a show I DVRd in December (I’m still catching up on all of the Hallmark channel holiday movies) or *gasp* read for pleasure?

People who work at home probably work more hours because they don’t really work at all, right?

8 comments:

Faith Bicknell said...

Omg, I get this all the time! It's one of my hot buttons.

Anonymous said...

When you work from home, you work WAY MORE than if you work outside of it. At least that's been my experience so far. I'm at my laptop 12+ hours at a time. Sure, I post on FB, and maybe waste a few minutes on Pinterest, but those are my 'breaks.' And I rarely take days off because I feel like a lazy slob when I do and time is money.

And omg it's FRUSTRATING when people assume because you're home you're available. GRRRRRR. Uh, no, are you going to feed me after I lose these precious hours of work time?

But I love it, don't get me wrong. Best decision of my life :)

steph beck said...

I'm my own worst enemy on a lot of the things I take on. I could say 'no' but I say 'yes' because I'm blessed with the freedom to be able to work at home. In this moment, I can still say 'yes' to a lot of things, and I do because one day I won't have that option.

Jaime Samms said...

And is family (usually the ones you don't love with ) who are the worst offenders. Burns my Butt. Because holy hell but some days actually going to the evil day Job can be a relaxing relief. Even if it does kill my soul just a little bit.

trinity said...

OH MY GOD! My family is the worst!! You just sit there, but when the check comes in guess who has their hands out first?

Trinity

Marci Baun said...

Yup. I work from home, too. Because I work from home, that means I have time to do laundry, run errands, take care of someone else's kid (not a play date), drop everything to take someone to an appointment, etc. It also means that I spend my days watching TV, doing my nails, landscaping my pubic hair, etc. At least, that's what everyone else seems to think. They have no problem asking me to drop whatever I am doing to help them, including 1099s, quarterly reports, formatting, etc. Marci doesn't have a deadline. She works from home. She can do whatever she wants. No actual work needs to be done. o.O

Um, yeah. o.O

Molly Daniels said...

I used to hear this constantly from neighbors and family. But now the spouse is home, I catch flak for *gasp* 'sitting at the computer, playing on Facebook/chat loops when there's-ahem-REAL work to be done (vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the toilet). Last I checked, I'm PROMOTING myself and trying to write the next best seller while all he does is watch reruns of Angel and his DIY channel. I do keep up with the laundry and clean the kitchen (besides all the cooking), and you're right Trinity.....when the check arrives, the snark begins. "Wow...we're really getting rich from your 'hobby'."

I sooo want to smack them....

Jessica E. Subject said...

I get this a lot, too. The people in my house have learned that when I'm on the computer, I'm working. I don't play games. But many people outside of the house still don't get it.

I'm very lucky that my hubby gets it, though. He's the one asking if I'm ever going to take a break.