Work at Home Moms: Learn to Say No.

One of the most common problems that work-at-home moms face is actually convincing people they are busy working and not available for social visits. I remember many frustrating times when friends would just front up to the house and say they had called in for a coffee and a chat. I didn't want to offend them so I dutifully sat down with a smile and internally stressed about work that wasn't completed. The other problem I had, which is common to all work-at-home moms, is that once my routine was broken by visitors, hard work teaching my children to respect my work routine was undone.

I am also a tutor and found a similar lack of consideration with respect to how people viewed that work. While people didn't barge in on a tutoring session, they tended to speak to me as if it wasn't really a job. Despite both tutoring and writing, I was regularly asked when I was going to get a real job. It still irks me.

The only answer for work-at-home moms in this situation is to stand firm and risk offending people. It can be very hard to do at first and chances are people will get offended; some may even be aggressive about it (particularly family members). However, if you are going to succeed at working from home you have to set boundaries and ask people to respect them.

With children, it is necessary to be flexible. There will always be times when an interruption cannot be avoided and good, quality time should be set aside to spend with the children. But other people do not have the same priority as our children and our families. Occasionally, we can allow ourselves to be interrupted if it is very important but we need to make the exceptions clear to everyone.

Ask your friends to phone first to see if it is okay to call in. Schedule time for friends and let them know when you are free. Above all, consider the children. Working at home is hard for mom and the kids. Their mother may be at home but they can't have her constant attention. The benefits of working at home, however, can outweigh the disadvantages. Just learn to say no!