Working From Home

Sounds great doesn't being able to work from home but the reality is usually very different let me tell you!

This week due to circumstances beyond my control I have had to work a couple of days from home.  For the company I work for this also happens to be the nastiest week in the whole financial calendar.  Not a great week to not be in the office.

Knowing that I am working from home the first thing I do is check my emails.  That way I know what is coming and what I need to do when I get back from the school run.  Sounds very organised but the truth is it is chaos.

After the school run it is just me and my daughter at home.  She goes to nursery at 12.30pm so until then I have to be worker and entertainer.  This is where I have discovered something about myself.  I had never realised the drive to work was so important to me to be able to function.  It is a 15 minute drive during which my transformation from mummy to worker happens.  The reverse is true on the way home.  Working from home takes this away; suddenly I have three seconds transformation time if that.

I have to switch from typing emails about forecasts and actuals to my boss to appreciating a lovely scribble my daughter has drawn.  When it came to getting her ready for bed that night she told me to wait a minute a she was working and needed to finish this.  Hmm, I wonder where she heard that.

When I am at home my connection to works server is slow.  I can make a cup of tea and put a load of washing in by the time it has managed to open our management pack.  I then click the refresh button and wash up.  I then sit and watch the little green line moving along my screen showing me the progress of saving it.  I watch it in a zombie like mode trying to predict when the next little square will go green.

Communication with the office is via email or telephone and I take full advantage of the fact that they cannot see me if you know what I mean.  I dread the day when work laptops come with built in web cams and we have to use Skype.  I will need to make more of an effort with my appearance when working from home and I need to be aware of what is on the wall behind me!

Yummy Mummy ... Not!

I am taking a break from the party planning posts today to have a bit of a rant!

The phrase "Yummy Mummy" bugs the hell out of me.  Unless you have an army of cooks, cleaners and nannies how on earth are you supposed to achieve the status of yummy mummy?

At what point can you class yourself as a yummy mummy?  Is there some secret scoreboard somewhere that you measure yourself against?

As I work I do have to make a bit of an effort when going into the office but I know there are occasions where I definitely do not look my best.  I try to make sure that this does not happen often but it does happen.  When I work from home it is usually done in my dressing gown and slippers with unwashed hair tied bag into a scraggy pony tail.  Thank God my boss cannot see me; goodness knows what he would make of the sight of me.  They have just introduced skype though so I will need to ensure that my web cam is permanently broken (sorry kids but you are likely to get the blame for this!).

My weekends normally involve housework, washing and studying so they way I look is not exactly the top of my priorities.

Trying to be a yummy mummy just adds to the pressures we all face as parents, as if there isn't enough to worry about.  If I am not a yummy mummy what am I?  A scummy mummy?  Not sure I like that idea at all!  As women we all like to look nice, it makes us feel good about ourselves but the thought of society looking at me and deciding if I am indeed a yummy mummy takes away the good feeling and replaces it with self doubt and anxiety.

That said I still want to be one!

If anyone knows where the secret scoreboard is please let me in on the secret, any inside information is always useful!