The best of both worlds?

Or is it the worst?

I am not technically a working Mom and I am not technically a SAHM I am that other breed the WAHM ... work at home Mom. It sounds great, right? Stay at home with your kids, keep your foot in the working world, have flexibility. On paper it looks great. In reality it can be a gigantic pain in the butt. Some days you can handle it well. Work goes fairly smooth, the kids are fairly well behaved, dinner is planned ahead of time, no giant messes come up. A good day.

Then there are those other days. No time in the morning to check e-mail because the kids are wild. Get them on the bus (almost late) and run in the house. Start a load of laundry, clean the breakfast dishes, feed the dog, pour some coffee and head to the office (upstairs). The inbox is full on the e-mail because you didn't check in this morning. You spend the morning trying to catch up, look at the clock and realize the bus will be turning the corner at any moment.

Run to the bus stop JUST IN TIME and collect two whiney kids (probably in the rain, wind, snow, etc.). Fight over the fact that they have to eat lunch and settle for apples, hummus and pretzels for the millionth time. Help kids eat while still answering e-mails to irrate students who haven't heard back from you. Kids are mad because you are not giving them your full attention. Students are mad because again... not the full attention. Boss is being irritating because it takes you more than three minutes to send 50 forms back.

Put work away for an hour to play outside. Spend the next hour playing with kids while worrying about work. Put kids to bed and pray that they nap. If they do pour more coffee and get to work. (If they don't you are royally screwed.) Work for two hours and realize you haven't even thought about the fact that your family needs to eat dinner and you need to be out the door for football/track/lacrosse/basketball in an hour and a half. Run downstairs, settle for some strange concoction you whip up in the crock pot for after sports. Feed grumpy kids leftovers while still working on the laptop at the kitchen table. Clean up dinner dishes, run out the door.

Come home... night time routine (bore, bore, bore), put kids to bed and work some more.

That's many of my days. Wishing I could give more attention to both my job and my kids (let alone my husband or my housework). Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I wouldn't trade being at home with my kids for ANYTHING. It just seems like some people judge you for being home but not giving 100% to your kids. Others judge you because you get to stay home and "work" (I am using their air quotes not mine). Meanwhile my office never closes. My students know I am on round the clock so they expect answers round the clock. I am good at setting boundaries with my students but not so much for myself. How can I sit and watch tv when I know 50 papers need to be graded.

So, when you meet some Mom who works from home and raises her kids full time and you feel the urge to say "you're so lucky" maybe it might be best to stifle. We know we're lucky... we just don't feel like it some days. :D