See mommy. See mommy multi-task.
I work from home. I do freelance writing and editing, mostly for the local newspaper and its various special publications, and I've done it off and on ever since Beth was born. I love most aspects about working from home, especially the fact that it allows me be the caregiver for our kids. I get to be the one to watch them, but I can still earn a few extra bucks.
The problem is that writing articles requires doing interviews. Sometimes I do interviews in person, in which case a friend or relative watches the kids. Often, though, it's easiest for everyone to just do the interview over the phone. I generally make phone calls and do other work during the inviolate hour or so of Quiet Time, when the younger kids are napping and Beth has to play quietly in her room. People are not always considerate enough to return my calls only during Quiet Time, though. The nerve of them! And when it's someone I really, really need to get a hold of for a story, I don't like to tell them I can't talk to them, when I have them on the phone right then and there.
This has required me to get creative with keeping my kids quiet and entertained when mommy's on the phone. Whipping out something they don't get to play with all the time--PlayDough, for instance--will often do the trick. There's always the electronic babysitter. I really don't feel too bad about letting them watch an extra show on PBS or play a computer game for 20 or 30 minutes. And Beth and Lucy are old enough now that those things are entertaining to them.
But the baby. What do you do with the baby when you have to do an interview on the phone? Screaming in the background is not very conducive to appearing competent and professional. I think I actually did once nurse during a (brief) interview, back when Beth was a baby. You can always try and arrange your baby's naptimes so that she'll be asleep when you need to be on the phone. Since babies are people and not robots, though, they sometimes unfortunately wake up before you want them to.
Today, faced with a phone call I knew was coming and a wide-awake baby, I had the brilliant idea to lay Evie on her play mat, then sit on the floor next to her while conducting my interview. I can scribble notes on a notepad just as easily while sitting on the floor as I can at my desk, and Evie had no way of knowing that all the words coming out of my mouth were not directed at her. She loves when people talk to her, so this kept her extremely content throughout the entire 37-minute interview.
So while I had a conversation about electronic medical records and asked questions like, "What kind of effort, in terms of cost and manpower, does it take to convert your medical practice to electronic records?" Evie apparently thought I was saying something like, "Oh, aren't you a pretty girl? Give me a smile! Give mommy a big smile!" After all, that's what I usually say to her. She grinned right back at me, anyway. I did have to make sure that I didn't make my voice all happy and high-pitched though. I don't think the medical officials I was talking to would have thought it was funny or enjoyed being addressed as "sweetie-pie."
Conducting interviews while sitting on the floor next to my baby, barefoot and cross-legged, never really entered my mind back when I was in journalism school. But in the end, I managed to get the interview done. And the baby didn't cry. That's all that matters, right?
The problem is that writing articles requires doing interviews. Sometimes I do interviews in person, in which case a friend or relative watches the kids. Often, though, it's easiest for everyone to just do the interview over the phone. I generally make phone calls and do other work during the inviolate hour or so of Quiet Time, when the younger kids are napping and Beth has to play quietly in her room. People are not always considerate enough to return my calls only during Quiet Time, though. The nerve of them! And when it's someone I really, really need to get a hold of for a story, I don't like to tell them I can't talk to them, when I have them on the phone right then and there.
This has required me to get creative with keeping my kids quiet and entertained when mommy's on the phone. Whipping out something they don't get to play with all the time--PlayDough, for instance--will often do the trick. There's always the electronic babysitter. I really don't feel too bad about letting them watch an extra show on PBS or play a computer game for 20 or 30 minutes. And Beth and Lucy are old enough now that those things are entertaining to them.
But the baby. What do you do with the baby when you have to do an interview on the phone? Screaming in the background is not very conducive to appearing competent and professional. I think I actually did once nurse during a (brief) interview, back when Beth was a baby. You can always try and arrange your baby's naptimes so that she'll be asleep when you need to be on the phone. Since babies are people and not robots, though, they sometimes unfortunately wake up before you want them to.
Today, faced with a phone call I knew was coming and a wide-awake baby, I had the brilliant idea to lay Evie on her play mat, then sit on the floor next to her while conducting my interview. I can scribble notes on a notepad just as easily while sitting on the floor as I can at my desk, and Evie had no way of knowing that all the words coming out of my mouth were not directed at her. She loves when people talk to her, so this kept her extremely content throughout the entire 37-minute interview.
So while I had a conversation about electronic medical records and asked questions like, "What kind of effort, in terms of cost and manpower, does it take to convert your medical practice to electronic records?" Evie apparently thought I was saying something like, "Oh, aren't you a pretty girl? Give me a smile! Give mommy a big smile!" After all, that's what I usually say to her. She grinned right back at me, anyway. I did have to make sure that I didn't make my voice all happy and high-pitched though. I don't think the medical officials I was talking to would have thought it was funny or enjoyed being addressed as "sweetie-pie."
Conducting interviews while sitting on the floor next to my baby, barefoot and cross-legged, never really entered my mind back when I was in journalism school. But in the end, I managed to get the interview done. And the baby didn't cry. That's all that matters, right?
1 comments:
Love it. Made me laugh
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