When Do You Listen To Your Kids?

Back in the day when I had a "normal" job, I drove my kids to school or day care, and usually picked them up in the afternoon or evening. My normal job involved taking and receiving calls on my cell phone most every minute that I was in the car and alot of times when I was home. Someone always needed something....right now. I was not smart enough to turn it off.

Now that I live in little ole New Smyrna Beach and work at home, I sometimes cannot find my cell phone. I take my son to his bus and my daughter to school and I pick them both up in the afternoon. Probably 10 minutes each way twice a day. Since they go to different schools at different times that 20 minutes a day is spent alone in the car with each of them, the things you can learn....if you listen....

My daughter is wide open and chatters her head off, I know everything, she loves Art, PE and Chorus. She is scared of the FCAT and I won't tell you what we call her teacher. She loves her dogs and her horse and hates her brother. She thinks her Grandma is the Queen and the sun rises and sets on her Grandpa. Her Uncle Rick is strict but "he loves us Mommy" and her Uncle Robby is the cool one. (we won't call him in an emergency-her words not mine).

My son is a tougher egg to crack, he is usually quiet and reading a book or listening to his Ipod in the car. I ask questions....how was your day, crap like that. It usually gets him talking. I know he loves his school, I know who his friends are what they talk about, I know what he thinks about politics, A-Rod and steroids, his baseball coach and what new "apps" he wants on his I-Touch.

I don't talk, I listen. The one thing I always tell them is "I Love You"

I laugh at the response.....

my daughter..."MOM, I know, I love you too, don't embarrass me"

my son looks at me like I have a third eye and says, "how do you think I don't know that Mom, I love you too."

So I use the 20 minutes I spend in the car with my kids to "listen". I would love to know what other Moms and Dads are doing to listen to their kids?

It Is Almost Over

Summer vacation that is. In 19 short days we will once again feel the joy only a mother at the end of summer vacation can feel. The sight, sound and diesel smell of the school bus. I for one cannot wait. Summer vacation is far too long. Three days into it my kids are bored (although they go to every camp imaginable), they are fighting and driving me nuts.

I work at home, on the telephone, there is nothing as unprofessional as your children screaming in the background with Disney channel blaring. My son got home from camp a scant 30 minutes ago and already I have broken up two fights, had to leave my office three times to turn down and then off the television...and NO once they get beyond toddler stage it does not get better, worse I think as the bigger they get the harder they fight.

Work At Home

This is me....well not exactly me, I am blonde. But, I do work at home and the last couple weeks I have had several people ask me how and what I do. So here are some good sites that you can use as a resource if you really want to work at home.

Rat Race Rebellion

eMoms at Home

Work At Home Mom Revolution

There are a ton of sites out there for work at home advice, these three are my favorites, all offer advice, and some legitimate opportunities for work at home. Good luck!

Work at Home

I get alot of questions about my work at home job. I am a recruiter and that is not something everyone can do. If you would like information on that or the company I work for please feel free to email me for information. If you would like information on a gazillion other opportunities you can do from home you need to check out

Work at Home Mom Revolution

This is written by a fellow work at home mom. Most of her posts involve work at home opportunities that she has come across. I check her out a couple times a week and always find some new opportunity that I can pass on to friends. Read her past posts as she has a lot of information.

Details

The details of working for yourself are SO tedious. If only I could be as organized about this as I am my calendar. I spent the better part of two hours sorting and loading receipts into my excel spreadsheet that I use for tracking expenses. It is so ridiculous to not keep up with it, but I NEVER do. So I plod thru months of wrinkled, unreadable receipts, pay stubs and various other trash from the bottom of my purse in order to work from home, for myself. There must be a better way!

Calendar

Do you use a calendar? For any successful work at home career, business or even just everyday family life a good calendar is a must have.

I use Microsoft Outlook Calendar for my work and family events.It is simple I can print out a weekly or a monthly view and everything is in one place.

There are a number of great interactive calendar programs out there right now and they are free to make them even better:

Google Calendar
Yahoo Calendar
Bravenet Calendar

There are a huge number of calendars you can download and pay for but the free ones work just as well.

A calendar is only as good as how we use it. I take a look at mine every Sunday night to see what I have coming up that week, school pictures, work appointments, calls I need to make, doctor visits anything that week.

I make every attempt to add things immediately as they come up. I have a little basket on my desk, I put appointment cards in there, I clear out the kids backpack every day when they get home and place any school events, meetings etc. that needs to be on the calendar in this basket. At the end of the day when the kids are in bed I go thru the basket and add all these things, then I throw away the paper. Less clutter more organization.

The more organized, the less stress!

Work At Home

I was out on the little public dock fishing with my kids last night near my house and ran into a neighbor, she said, "what do you do?" Certainly she is wondering why in the world I am taking my kids to the bus in my slippers, going to the beach on weekdays, and doing what appears to be nothing, with no husband or visible means of income. So I told her...

I am a recruiter, or a headhunter as some call us. I find people jobs and I find companies people. This is a GREAT job for working at home, you do need to have some recruiting experience or someone who is willing to lead you along and teach you. You should also be able to go several weeks or months without money (have some savings) as it can take about 8 weeks or more to make your first placement.

I had 15 years of Human Resources experience, I got up, got dressed up went off to the office where I made big decisions about the company and peoples lives. Meanwhile I had a string of nannies, moved 3 times in six years and separated and eventually divorced my husband. When I realized someone else was raising my kids I decided this was a great time to work from home.

I investigated and evaluated many different things. There are good work at home gigs out there, you just have to find them. I have a friend who does medical transcription, one who works for GE Customer Service, one who is a virtual Legal Assistant, several realtors who work out of their homes and one who is a volunteer coordinator for a major charity. My brother does outside sales for a software company and another friend is in pharmaceutical sales. My advice is do something you know and love or at least like to do.

I opted to do something I knew. I am good at talking to people I have never met, getting them excited about new opportunities and companies and dealing with hiring authorities and managers, after all I used to be one.

I love my job, it does not even seem like work most days, the company I work for Sterling Partners, uses all "virtual recruiters", some of us work alone, some in teams. I have a partner that I work with and two people who help me out with pre-screening and phone calls. I spend about four hours a day on the phone, leaving messages and talking to candidates. I break in the afternoon when the kids get home and spend another hour or so in the evening getting organized for the next day and combing thru resumes and answering emails. To be successful you MUST be organized.

Drop me a note if you would like more information on this work at home opportunity or have questions about the others I mentioned above, I can get you in contact with those folks. A couple of good places to check out that have great information:

Working in PJ's
Work at Home Mom Revolution
Work At Home Mom

So my new neighbor was satisfied with my answer she said she thought perhaps I had a rich dead husband....if only that were the case....kidding I am kidding!