This is always an interesting topic. The short answer is, some are able to make it work and others aren't. One solution is to hire someone, maybe a teenager, to supervise the children and let you know if they see blood. Otherwise you'll come out of your office during breaks and lunch and check on things. You might even have security cameras so you could take a quick look occasionally. How do you know if YOU will be one of the ones who can make it work? I don't know the answer to that.

It really depends on the age of the children, IMO.

I had someone who came and helped during the day when my children were preschool age. I also did a lot of work after they went to bed at night. Fortunately, younger children tend to go to bed at an earlier hour. Bedtime at our house was 8 p.m., do or die! I then had a couple hours to bang out as many lines as I could. Even with a mother's helper, I had one child who needed a lot of attention from me and many times I worked with him in my lap - where he was allowed to stay as long as he was quiet and didn't wiggle too much. I was able to keep working and he was more than happy to just sit quietly.

I can't imagine you could really get many lines out when you have small children demanding your attention but you can work your schedule around theirs so you can be very productive during some hours and semi productive during others. And I highly recommend that a helper, even for a couple hours a day, can make enough of a difference in your productivity that it offsets the cost.

IF your employer offers you that kind of flexibility. Some -- many? -- don't.

I'd like to know how you typed with a kid in your lap. My cat would be overjoyed if I could figure out a way to transcribe while she sat in my lap. I'm thinking maybe one of those baby slings??? (And I promise to post a picture if I ever actually get one.)

I'm not going to claim I my lph were tops while he was in my lap, but I got more done than if I'd tried to work while he was demanding my attention in other ways. And he was bigger than a cat, too!

I had a teenager and I turned him into a courier. That was back when we had to pick up and deliver tapes. I don't want to go back to those days. NOOOOO!

The teenager days - or the courier days?

I don't want to go back to either one of those unless I could have a do-over on how I handled the teenager years. They turned out great in spite of me.

I used a homemade sling for my kitten. She had just had surgery and was miserable, and would sit at my feet and cry, so I finally went and got an old bra and stuffed her in one of the cups, hooked it and hung it around my neck. She was happy then, slept like a baby. I got a lot of work done that day, but I have to admit I had a sore neck that night. My solution for adult cats is to put my desk with the typewriter return (it's that old) under the window, and that way there are 2 in the window, and one on the return. Everybody wins.

Oh, Jett, I'd pay good money to see a picture of your bra/sling apparatus. Unfortunately, even though Sunny at 9 pounds is small for a cat, there's no way she'd fit in my bra cup!