There comes a time in the life of every parent who works from home when they must take the focus off of their child and put it on their work load. Truth be told, a lot of us who choose to earn our incomes within the home do so in order to be closer to our children, but can feel at times as though we’re actually spending less time with our little ones. I know I’m guilty of this.

When I first started working from home, acting as a virtual assistant and dabbling in writing, I scheduled my work hours exclusively for the times that my daughter was sleeping. If she was awake, I wasn’t working. Part of this was necessity and part was mommy-guilt, because she wasn’t capable of long stretches of time entertaining herself, nor did I think it was okay for her waking moments to not capture 100% of my attention.

Soon, I took on more work and therefore needed more hours to devote to it, and she stopped napping during the day. I needed a new solution, so a year ago, she started attending a couple of mornings of childcare each week in someone else’s home while I worked in my own silent one.

Since, she’s grown older and become not only capable of  playing on her own, but also a big fan of children’s movies and televisions shows. And my work load has increased even more. It’s become a lot easier to turn on the laptop, give her something to do, and get my tasks accomplished. Honestly, I’m blessed, since she’s perfectly happy to entertain herself for hours, if I need her to.

There’s been few occasions until this month, while her daycare provider is on vacation, when I would put that to the test. Now, three mornings a week, I find myself putting on a movie, sitting down to my desk with a mug of tea, and getting work done while she watches some form of Nickelodeon character’s adventures and plays with what seems like every toy she owns.

The old me would have felt quite guilty for this. Horrified, even, because of the last of attention bestowed upon her. It would have felt so wrong to have my back face her, and just trust that she will find something to do or ask me for help if she needs ideas. But this work-at-home-mom is a new person.

I recognize that if I worked in my old job – the one I had before I went on maternity leave – I’d likely see my daughter for a total of three hours a day, including travelling to and from daycare. I recognize that I, especially as a single parent who doesn’t get enough support to cover all of the necessities, have the onus of earning at least a part-time income. I also recognize that quality daycare is both hard to find and expensive – at times, moms stay at home since their childcare costs would be nearly equal to their employment income.

So, I conceded, accepting that if my daughter is happy to entertain herself, I can be happy to work from home. Once I did that, it seemed as though the concept of working got less stressful and more productive.

Do you work from home, or have you considered it? How would you tackle this issue?