If you had told me years ago that I’d be a work-at-home mama, I’d have laughed and laughed. I like working outside the home, yet here I am.

I work-at-home because one we unschool, so someone needs to be home with Cedar. Two, I had no idea that Cedar would be so much fun. I really never expected to want to be home with him, but by the time he was two years old the thought of sending him to daycare was eating away at me. I knew he should be with a parent.

Since Ben (Cedar’s dad) doesn’t have any skills that translate into working at home, that left me. I already was writing part-time from home and part-time writing for the companies I worked for, so I figured I could just do it all full-time from home. Now I do. However, if you’ve been looking at your baby’s face, thinking, “I wish I could stay home” it’s smart to know that there are pros and cons. In this post we’ll look at cons. In the next post we’ll look at pros.

Cons of being a work-at-home mama:

Less pay: This is not true for all work-at-home mama. I could make more money if I was still doing grant writing at a company base, but I can’t just jaunt off so… I make less. Enough to pay the bills but not as much as I could.

No health insurance: You know how much covering your own health care and your child’s health care costs? You don’t want to know. It’s insanely expensive, and that’s not counting dental. My last job out in the real world paid all of my health care costs minus a tiny co-pay. Health care is a huge issue.

No perks: No free coffee, no 401K, no one paying my taxes, no life insurance policy, no free office supplies, and no set lunch breaks.

Odd work hours: I am home with Cedar, to be home with him, so my weekdays are mainly preoccupied with Cedar. Guess what that means - I work weekends, super early mornings, and late evenings. My free time… wait free time? (Ha). Good luck with that.

Work time is not exactly always work time: I do work evenings and weekends. However, if Cedar is sick at night, I’m busy with him. Because I’m a single mama, if Cedar needs something, it’s all on me. Cedar doesn’t get that my work time at home is REAL work time. He’ll pop in to show me pictures or want to read a story, and it can get very frustrating.

*Note: Even if you do have a partner you may not get help when they’re home (I didn’t) because partners (not just mine either) have this annoying abililty to assume that since you’re at home you must not be working (see next con).

No one thinks you work: I’m not sure what people think I’m doing but it’s sure as heck not work. People ask me to babysit, come over to let their dog out, go places, or just want to call and chat during my designated work hours. My ex and even some of my friends, have the annoying habit of saying, “I’m so tired after working all day… you don’t know what that’s like, you’re so lucky that you get to stay home all day.” Sign. That old deal you hear about the woman who sits at home and eats bon bons all day and watches TV - people think I’m her. In my case I get it double worse because people add in, “You JUST write, that’s not work.”

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

No social time at work: This is a little different for me, because I’m a problogger, so I do actually have somewhat of a social work life. However, it’s not the same as having friends at the next desk. I really miss work friends in person. A LOT. We see friends during the week, but it’s not quite the same and Cedar is always with me.

Less stability: Depending on the work-at-home you choose to do, there can be less stability. I’ve worked from home for years, and never, not once had the same monthly paycheck. I don’t have experience with all kinds of work at home jobs, but many seem less stable than jobs you might find out of the home.

You’re always at work: Because my office is in the next room it can be hard to turn off the work machine (that would be me). At a job outside of the home, they usually lock the building for at least a couple of hours each day. I always feel like I could be doing more.

Next up, now that I’ve completely discouraged you, we’ll look at some work-at-home pros. I swear there are some.

Now, do you work at home? Let me know your cons…