As a child, most of my somedays were about becoming an adult, and following in my Mother’s footsteps, having a family of my own. In the 1960’s becoming a mother was the accepted aspiration of a young woman. Women were talking about careers, and our own mothers were supportive of education for their daughters “just in case.”
Our mothers were not necessarily supportive of our working once children were in the picture. When I asked my mother if she would be willing to help with childcare so I could work, the answer wasn’t just “No thank you,” but included an expression of shock and disappointment that I had the nerve to ask her to help me shirk my parenting responsibilities. Mom recommended I take care of my own children, just as she had.
Someday advances in technology will bring many jobs from the workplace into the home. Are you skeptical? In 2016 there was a 36% increase in remote job listings. While computer and IT jobs dominate the at home job opportunities, there are also opportunities in medical and health, sales, administration, customer service, education,training, and marketing.
Remote jobs, offsite jobs, telecommuting jobs are different names for the same thing, working outside of the traditional work place.
Still not sure these are real jobs? They are jobs such as transcription, translation, training, teaching, tech support specialists, designers, writer and editor, travel agent, accounting, administration and recruiting.
The benefits for employers include reduced facilities costs, lower absenteeism, lower turnover, and savings of an estimated $10,000 per employee per year.
The benefits to the employee includes 15 days of time saved from commuting, and savings between $1,600 and $6,800. In addition, 47 percent of telecommuters are very satisfied with their jobs as compared with a 27 percent very satisfied rate of their office bound peers.
Telecommuting doesn’t mean parents will never need childcare help. Your job will still have all the other requirements of your in-office counterpart. Telecommuting does mean increased options and flexibility for families, and for employers who want to retain productive workers.
April's Perspective 
Yes, for sure. I have gotten some extra income doing freelance writing during the downtime at my regular job.
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Freelance can be a good gig, but you have to continuously hustle. It is all you, with an occasional assignment.
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I wish my employers were more encouraging if job sharing. I have a coworker who is also a new mom and it would be awesome if we could combine our job into one for a few years and temp out one of our positions full time. Problem is I make less money than her 😪 So of course she’s not going to take a pay cut….. and they’re not about to give me a raise sucks…
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There is a movement toward flex working, but many employers are still worried about it. Change is slow.
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Change is always slow… however at least there is hope ☺
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I hope the tide turns about working from home. Hopefully, once all the boomers retire (I’m trying, trying), this line of thinking that people have to BE in a workplace will change with the good ideas from Gen Xers and Millennials. As a university lecturer, I am lucky to have the best of both worlds. I can work (grade papers, prep lectures, curricula, e-mail) from home, then be on campus two half days per week, for 8 months out of the year. I do some freelance web content editing and other writing gigs as well. So much better than the ridiculous hustle of full-time work. If we love our jobs, then work; if not, try to make changes. Great post, April!
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The younger you are the more normal it is to have a flexible working arrangements. Sounds like you have a good deal. You made some good choices along the way.
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I can’t be skeptical since I’ve been working from home part-time since 2007 and full-time since 2010. I can’t see myself working outside the house anymore. I’ve worked in a call center setting, chat support, transcription, and now moving on into the software development world and blogging.
My blog is actually dedicated to helping people kick the drive to work and stay at home. I especially love your bit about parents still needing daycare. It surprised me when I first started this blog how many people think work at home jobs will allow them to take care of their kids and work from their smart phone whenever and where ever they want. Working from home is exactly like working on-site, the only difference is there’s no commute and you can work in your PJs.
Now I’m just rambling… great article.
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