I don't even try. I have an almost-four-year-old who's high maintenance, and he doesn't go to school for another two years. Fortunately, the other one is in school.

Thing is, I can do ANYTHING else...write, code, do bookkeeping, file, clean, cook, watch TV, surf...anything. But the minute the headphones go on, he makes sure that all hell breaks loose.

Margie, I have spent countless hours with a cat tucked in my shirt. You just have to tuck it in your bra--instant sling. I have also used a Snugli for dog/cats, which is a lot easier on the clothing (forget those little nipples on your shoulders from hanging your knits on a hanger--we're talking major bagging here).

I never would have attempted this, but we rescued her way too young (maybe 5 weeks) and she bonded so thoroughly that she likes nothing better than to snuggle like that. The kid can go an entire shift without having to change position.

As for human kids and MT? Ridiculous.



(That light blue pad behind the straps lets you put your cat on either side, depending on how much they want to hunker in.)

I've been at home since my oldest was 2 (he's now almost 14). My middle and youngest sons have always known me to work at home. When they were tiny babies, I had a playpen set up in my work space so I didn't have to run upstairs when they woke up. I breastfed so not having to get up and go upstairs every time they needed to eat was nice. I figured out how to "sling" them in my lap in order to nurse and type at the same time (trust me, NOT easy at first...lots of coordination and plain ole trial and error!). When they were both small enough and needed just to be held, I put them in a Snugli and transcribe around them. As my middle son got older and the youngest was still a baby, I gated off our rec room next to my work area. He had his toys, the TV, a couch to nap on, etc., and I could keep an eye on him. My youngest son, though, when he got older, was (and still is) quite a cuddler and always wanted to be held or sitting in our laps, so he would sit in my lap while I transcribed. He would sit for 3 or 4 hours at a time, just as peaceful as can be...sometimes fell asleep. A lot of times, he would put his little hands over top of mine while I typed, like he was trying to figure out how it all worked...it was so sweet!

Working at home with kids of any age can be done, but it has a lot of challenges. I didn't have a sitter very often just because I didn't want one and didn't need one 98% of the time.

As for the cat...well...my cat (God rest her soul!) use to lay across the top of the back of my chair and just sorta lean into the back of my head. When I would get fatigued, I would lean my head back onto her stomach and she would start purring...it was kinda like a brain massage! Once in a while she would start waving her tail around the side of my face, which wouldn't have been so bad if she wasn't a Himalayan with extremely long fluffy fur!

Vernondi, that sounds like a horrific situation to me! No offense, and giant kudos to anybody who is that determined, but I would never have done any good with a baby latched on while I was typing. I kept my 3-month-old grandson for a week while his parents were out of town and I never typed the first word.

I could barely work with my husband at home. Of course that is a joke, I did that all the time, but I didn't want any baby in my house while I was working.

I am always very impressed with the stories people tell of working in the presence of children. What annoys me is when someone shows up here, announces they are an at-home mother, and they think MT would be a good job for them. Having children is NO qualification for doing this work, though obviously many people can do the work if they have offspring.

What surprises me is that if someone is a SAHM, surely she, of all people, should realize that keeping a house while taking care of small children is already a full-time job. So if she's contemplating adding MT or any other money-making job to that, she's looking at figuring out how to work two jobs. Lots of people do that, but anyone with two brain cells to rub together should be able to figure out that it is going to take some figuring to manage it. Either she and her husband are going to have to work different hours and split the childcare duties during their respective off-work hours, she's going to need some kind of part-time or full-time childcare arrangement, she's going to have to work very part-time and accept that her production is likely not going to be all that great when she is working, or she's going to be keeling over from sleep deprivation in very short order. I admire the energy and determination of the women who manage to make it work one way or another, but I think anyone needs to keep in mind Julie's caveat: "I'm not going to claim 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." Some times getting a little more work done than practically none at all is about the best you're going to manage if you can't have uninterrupted time to concentrate on churning those lines out. Can some people do this with little kids at home and underfoot? Yes, but they'd best not be planning on their paycheck covering all the family bills if they're going to work that way. Also, a lot of it is going to depend not only on how disciplined Mom is with herself and her children both, but the luck of the draw in what kind of child personalities the goddess landed her with.

I have another kind of a peeve, too. I have a friend. She wants to go on the road with her husband so said (to my face): "I figure if you can do it, I can too." That is not necessarily so.

Edited to lift the hijack.

Yeah. One that doesn't mean anything to anybody, especially the bill collector.

Fact is, necessity doesn't give a crap about your situation, and just because you sit down and figure it out once doesn't mean you aren't going to have to do it again the next day, and the next, and the next, and the next. The day-to-day needs change and what worked yesterday won't today. Not only that, but they won't even fall into some kind of predictable pattern.

I've been doing this six years now and it's as difficult as it ever was. No. More.

At the beginning of this journey, did my husband and I sit down and figure out how to make it work?

No.

We had no choice.

We still don't.

Planning has very little to do with it. You take it day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. And no two minutes are ever the same.

Don't judge people whose shoes you've never walked in.

There's been much criticism over the years flung at people who get into MT "just so they can work at home in their jammies and be with the kids," but the fact is that's why many of us became interested in MT - including me.

That doesn't mean we didn't get good at it. Becoming an MT so you can be at home with the children doesn't necessarily equate to someone who (a) will never take the job seriously or (b) is a substandard MT.

Like most generalizations, this is one that's gotten a lot of mileage over the years. All I can say is - go ahead and take a swing at me. That was me, 22 years ago.

But you, Julie, are an exception when compared to the many, many women over the years who use that reason the way things are now.

You would have done well if you had decided to be a...a nuclear physicist...because of your work ethic. Not everybody has that, and there are podunk schools on matchbook covers and in Parade Magazine every week. You succeeded the way you have because of who you are.