04 April 2007
Stay at home dad study - we're happy
A study done by the University of Texas says that stay at home dads are slightly happier than other dads, says an article at babble (a newish online mag for "urban parents").
Surprised? I'm not. I'm thrilled that I get to stay at home with my son on Fridays. And while I'm only a part-time stay-at-home dad, I'm a full-time work-at-home dad, so I get the benefit of getting to spend mornings and evenings with him, and to be here on the day that the wife is staying home with the boy. It's a great situation for the stability of our family unit.
There's some other stuff in there about stay-at-home dads' attitudes about gender roles that seem obvious and also unsuprising. Do the rest of male Americans who are not stay-at-home dads really have those outdated views of "the home is the woman's place" that would make these results remarkable? I know there are some Neanderthals out there, but really? This is the 21st century!
Surprised? I'm not. I'm thrilled that I get to stay at home with my son on Fridays. And while I'm only a part-time stay-at-home dad, I'm a full-time work-at-home dad, so I get the benefit of getting to spend mornings and evenings with him, and to be here on the day that the wife is staying home with the boy. It's a great situation for the stability of our family unit.
There's some other stuff in there about stay-at-home dads' attitudes about gender roles that seem obvious and also unsuprising. Do the rest of male Americans who are not stay-at-home dads really have those outdated views of "the home is the woman's place" that would make these results remarkable? I know there are some Neanderthals out there, but really? This is the 21st century!
Labels: american culture, babble, working at home
16 January 2007
Working at home, the Aussie way
Here's a brief report on working at home from Australia's "The Age":
That does seem to be true, though I'm sure it depends on the demands of the job. For me, there have been times when I just kept working. Now, the situation is that I trade two evenings - working from after dinner to 10 or 11 - for a Friday off to take care of our son. So that's less about work encroaching on home life, than exchanging some home life time for other time. If I was working a normal 8 to 5, I wouldn't get to spend an entire day with our son, and instead only seen him for a few hours each night.
(Aside: I read the professor's name above as "Professor Peacock" my first time through. Reminded me of Clue, which I played once again recently around the holidays. Wonder if she gets that often?)
"Westpac's head of diversity, Niki Kesoglou, says workers are assessed for ability to work on their own, provided with the equipment they need and helped to ensure their work environment is safe. Guidelines are given for communication with managers and progress is monitored according to meeting objectives, rather than when workers clock on and off.
Westpac benefits through greater productivity, worker retention and morale."
...
"But Barbara Pocock, the director of the Centre for Work + Life, at the University of South Australia, says there is a downside to telecommuting.
While it gives parents, particularly working mothers, the flexibility to work from home and deal with emergencies, it can encroach on family life.
Professor Pocock says there is an increasingly "porous boundary" between work and home life that is being breached."
That does seem to be true, though I'm sure it depends on the demands of the job. For me, there have been times when I just kept working. Now, the situation is that I trade two evenings - working from after dinner to 10 or 11 - for a Friday off to take care of our son. So that's less about work encroaching on home life, than exchanging some home life time for other time. If I was working a normal 8 to 5, I wouldn't get to spend an entire day with our son, and instead only seen him for a few hours each night.
(Aside: I read the professor's name above as "Professor Peacock" my first time through. Reminded me of Clue, which I played once again recently around the holidays. Wonder if she gets that often?)
Labels: Clue, flexible scheduling, working at home
04 January 2007
A writer's life
And this is my, um, ideal life.
John Scalzi (author of Old Man's War and other books and things, writes above about his life of a writer. He says some great things about the struggles of a "successful" freelance writer and author, and other comments about working at home. This part resonates with me:
This is true for me to. Everyone says: "It must be great to work from home." There are many benefits, but there are drawbacks, too. I'm constantly distracted by everything else to do around the house. Even though I'm essentially an introvert, I do miss people - you can only get so much from emails and IMs. And my employer sees working at home as a benefit in itself, so I don't get many others.
People even say, "Oh you work from home, you can take care of your son, then." Have we already lost the perspective of a generation or less ago when the majority of mom's stayed at home with the kids? That was it's own job. Do they really expect that I can get actual productive work done AND give my two year old a decent about of attention?
But John's post also alludes to the hard work of writing - the constant work, the struggle to create, and to manage your own business. I'd like to be a full time writer. I just have to buck up and accept that it's not easy. I can do that.
John Scalzi (author of Old Man's War and other books and things, writes above about his life of a writer. He says some great things about the struggles of a "successful" freelance writer and author, and other comments about working at home. This part resonates with me:
"I see two objections here. The first [is] the practical one: at least you work from home. Well, this is true. On the other hand, people who don't work at home idealize the working from home scenario. "
This is true for me to. Everyone says: "It must be great to work from home." There are many benefits, but there are drawbacks, too. I'm constantly distracted by everything else to do around the house. Even though I'm essentially an introvert, I do miss people - you can only get so much from emails and IMs. And my employer sees working at home as a benefit in itself, so I don't get many others.
People even say, "Oh you work from home, you can take care of your son, then." Have we already lost the perspective of a generation or less ago when the majority of mom's stayed at home with the kids? That was it's own job. Do they really expect that I can get actual productive work done AND give my two year old a decent about of attention?
But John's post also alludes to the hard work of writing - the constant work, the struggle to create, and to manage your own business. I'd like to be a full time writer. I just have to buck up and accept that it's not easy. I can do that.
Labels: John Scalzi, working at home, writing
