Working from home with a baby is sometimes very @#$%^&. So, having said that, I can now explain to you why the stress is so high and stress and working from home have a kind of 1-on-1 relationship with each other.
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I worked from home for seven months while also taking care of our baby. It was great to be with Roan so much! It therefore seems like the perfect combination of work and worry, but pffffff, there is also a downside, stress and working from home seem to be linked.
The first months as 'WAHM' were peanuts! I went back to work when Roan was 12 weeks old. Roan slept so much during the day (and at night, for that matter) that I could easily get my work done (24 hours a week) and also have enough time to blog and relax.
By mid-June—when Roan was nearly six months old—I noticed his naps were getting shorter. oh oh. Not much later he went from three to two naps and I had a very hard time with that! I could no longer finish my work in the hours that he slept, so I had to work in the evenings as well. Stress and working from home then started to build on their mutual relationship. In itself, I didn't find working in the evening that much—usually not that bad, but I still felt miserable. There turned out to be something else:
It's like a race against time!
The stress is in my body and I felt constantly rushed. Roan on the bed, hop behind the laptop quickly, not a second to lose. To the bathroom? No, buttocks together. Thirst? Too bad. Ignore. On on on because Roan was about to wake up at any moment. Of course that is also a character trait. I have a lot to do with myself and this regularly causes stress.
Still, I think many stay at home mothers recognize this. Yes, right?
Whether you have a (home-work) job next to it or not, a lot has to be done at home. Housekeeping, cooking, shopping and of course taking care of your child(ren). And then I even had a cleaning lady and a guy who helps a lot with the household (he cooks and does the shopping).
But still, that rushed feeling… I couldn't get rid of it. Not even when my parents stepped in and started babysitting regularly. It was as if it had become a part of me, that stress.
We have taken a radical approach and completely turned our lives around. We sold our house (not without tears), quit our job and we left! For an indefinite period of time we live with our baby in a caravan and travel with the sun. Joost has gone from office daddy to stay at home daddy (literally:caravan stay daddy), while I have the time to work.
Sometimes the stress takes over again. Then Roan is asleep and I start snapping at Joost when he asks me something. I still don't want to be disturbed when Roan sleeps, because it's still deep down in my system that I have to work through. But luckily that is already less! The Spanish sun, Joost who takes over much of the care for Roan (certainly handy now that Roan only takes one nap) and the many outdoor life on a campsite:that does a hunted person very well 😉 .
Stress and working from home seem to me to be slowly but surely disappearing from my system in this way, but I'm not there yet!
Well, this was in a nutshell the decision Nanouk and Joost made to try to build a life without stress. Is it intense? Nanouk also blogs about it, so if you want to follow their nomad existence, you would do well to check her blog regularly.
