There are many pros and cons to being a work at home mom.  Deciding whether it is right for you will require looking at some of the situations, and determining if you can make them work for your benefit.

Pro:  When you work at home, you have the ability to be more accessible to the people who need you most.  If a situation arises, your children (or spouse or neighbors) know that you are just a room away. 

Con:  Unfortunately, many of the people closest to you will not understand that when you are working you are actually working.  Emergencies may include things like not being able to find a favorite baseball.  Almost always, you will be the first person that family and neighbors think of when they need someone to do something during the work day – after all you are at home.

The key is to find creative ways to make yourself available but not TOO available.  Put up a sign on the door of when you will be taking a break, make a list of actual emergency situations and turn off the phone (or send your calls straight to the answering machine).  No matter what you do, people will still see more of the home than they will of the work.

Pro:  One of the best things about the work at home scenario is that you can work anytime that you want (depending on what you are doing at home).  You aren’t locked in to the 9 to 5 hours that many people are forced to squeeze into.  If you are up at 2 am then you can work at 2 am.  Your schedule is usually completely up to you.

Con:  It is easy to fall into the procrastination habit when you don’t have someone behind you telling you what to do and when to do it.  Being able to work at home at anytime of the day or night often means you put off work until later.

There are plenty of ways to help you stay on track with your work at home.  Create detailed schedules or fill a calendar with your activities and jobs and due dates.  Make yourself commit a certain number of hours to work each day (preferably at the same time each day) and you will be able to keep procrastination at bay.

Having the ability to work at home often requires a balancing act.  Many of the pros that are associated with people who work at home are also the cons.  If you can find ways to flip the cons into positive situations, then you will find that being able to work at home is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.