Work Life

Frazzled. That's how I feel today. It's been a crushing week in Daddyville.

It's been tough going for a couple of reasons. First: the kids have been off school for Easter, meaning they're constantly around the house looking for food and entertainment. Second: our second car broke down, leaving me stranded in the house whenever Lisa's in Belfast attending to her mother.

Well, dear readers, it seems recession, parental deaths and a series of other little factors are pushing me back toward a desk job.

It was almost a year ago that we took the decision to concentrate completely on the business, and I quit my job. For about six months, we were plodding along merrily, the effects of the recession not giving us any cause for concern. Then two things happened:

1. My father took ill in Lourdes, was diagnosed with cancer and died within about three months. It completely took me away from developing our business and into a world of family issues I’d distanced myself from for years. Even after the funeral, my head was fuzzy with grief and I was totally unfocused.
2. The dreaded alliterative nightmare that is the credit crunch visited us. Despite no worrying signs at all, in June advertising revenue from our sites took a massive downturn. Suddenly relying on the great passive-income generator that is Google AdSense (and other advertising schemes) didn’t seem like a great idea anymore.

Now, the summer time is a bad time for ad revenue anyway: people go on holiday or spend more time outdoors. You can feel the general quieting of the Internet for the holiday period. Plus, Big Brother was bleeding viewers, the showbiz world decided to have a slow-news summer and the only thing to write about was the Katie and Peter split. Yawnnnn.

So, you'll know from Gerard's previous posts that we have decided to go full time on our business. When we made the decision I was full of excitement, so much so that I could hardly sit still. But now the magnitude of our move is starting to hit me.

Everybody we've told about what we have planned thinks we are crazy. People think its a bad time for us to be placing our family finances on the line like this and day by day I am wondering if they have a point.

One of our goals in becoming self-employed is to increase our focus on our family. Lisa and I are both concerned about dividing our time properly between the business and our home life. And of course, working from home has the added opportunity for us to devote more time to the family. If we plan it right.

As I see it, with two of us at home, we should be able to more successfully manage the household workload and plan better meals, time with the kids and stuff like that.

My own personal goals for working from home are:

I did a bit of an exciting thing during the week. I quit my job.

Now, there were a few problems in the office that I wasn't happy with. Nothing to do with the work or the people who worked there, but more issues I had with my managers that have come to a head. Although I have decided not to divulge too much, the thing is that those issues led me to decide that working for an employer is too much trouble.

Those of you who've spent time in any of our homes over the years will already know this - neither Lisa or I are remotely houseproud. Life's too short for housework, so we generally do the bare minimum and occasionally freak out at just how untidy the place gets.

How many times we dreamed of having someone else come in and clean the house down to save us having to do it? At least once a week. Sometimes daily.

So Lisa went away and found a cleaning company (given the title of the piece, you were expecting that news, no?). She arranged for them to come out to the house today and give us an estimate for a one-off spring clean.

They visited the house this morning and showed Lisa all the services they carry out. So impressed was she that she signed them up for a monthly visit at £100.00 a time. And to be honest, that's not bad. It means that once a month, these people will come in and clean the house to a certain standard, leaving us to maintain that level of cleanliness between visits.

Worth every penny as far as I'm concerned. It'll be nice to have someone take care of the dirty work, and it'll also save Lisa a fair bit of time and worry about keeping the house up to standard.

But I'm wondering - how many of you have used (or are using) a cleaning service to help out with the housework?

Today I have actually managed to get quite a bit of work done, considering the kids woke up at 6.45am and the last one went to sleep at 9.30pm.

I managed to fit an hours work at lunchtime, when Rachel was at nursery and the boys were asleep. I also managed another hour and a half after putting the baby to bed at 7.30pm, while Gerard amused the other two. After bedtime was finally finished and I had told the bedtime stories I went back on the PC and now 2 hours later I have just wrapped up for the night.

I may not be making a whole lot of money, but what little I do make is a personal acheivment and a step towards bigger and better things.

Even if I never make more than mere pocket money, what other job would allow me such flexibility? Who else would allow me to put my children first at all times? I really believe I have the sweetest deal in the world.

I would recomend the life of a wahm to anyone!

The day begins at 6.30am with a cry from Jake that his shorts are wet. I get up to discover his Huggies pull-up pants and pyjamas are wet through. He gets washed and changed and joins me on the sofa for a few quiet minutes cuddled under a blanket before the other two wake up.

The quiet moment passes quickly with the arrival of Rachel at 7am. She demands breakfast and complains because we have run out of Weetabix. A fruit salad and some toast later we have two full and happy children. The I hear Daniels tell-tale babbling in the baby monitor.

I lift him to discover that his diarrhea has not yet abated and quickly strip off his clothes, bedclothes and nappy and scrub him down.

The morning continues with all the children (and me of course) getting washed and dressed. I begin to prepare for the important meeting we have later that afternoon with a marketing consultant by printing out vital documents and emails while frantically serching for my car keys and purse.

11.30am and we are ready to leave. A friend is going to kindly drop Rachel to school so I leave her off first then embark on the 15 mile drive to Belfast.

After stopping for some vital groceries I arrive at my mothers house in time to be vomited on by Daniel. Of course I haven't brought a change of clothes, and I don't think that smelling of stale vomit would convey a very professional image to the marketing consultant. So I run about in my bra trying to wash out and then dry my top before the goop dries in.

2pm, both boys are washed and fed, Jake is watching Shrek, Daniel is sleeping. It is time for me to hand over to my mum and set off on my 20 mile journey to Antrim.

I arrive on time, the meeting begins and we start to talk about how we intend to launch our first ever product, a set of preschool educational flashcards. (Feel free to purchase a set, I can highly recommend them!)

We explain how Gerard hand-illustrated the cards for use with Rachel when she was younger and we found them so beneficial in developing her early conversational skills and now her word recognition and reading skills, that we felt we could produce them commercially and turn them into a viable business venture.

The consultant spent almost three hours suggesting ways in which we could promote and market the product, most of which would cost way more than we can afford. It was highly informative though and definately a worthwhile experience.

We got home at 6pm, made dinner, got everyone washed and ready for bed, then collapsed in a heap in front of our PCs to try and plan the way ahead.

I wonder what tomorrow will hold?