Nervous About Changes

It is doable...but so much give and take. We had few years of hubs home at 8am! He was a full time Pastor and part time box thrower at Target. His office was in the house for a bit. I was also homeschooling! ONE major help is he would take the kids EVERY Thursday for archery, I had 3 hours without anyone! That helped me so so so much!

 

I have no experience, but I am curious to know how this works.

 

My hubs has been home for an extended amount of time with illness/surgeries over the past few yrs and it was such a shock to my schedule to have him around during the day. He would want to chat while I was in my office working or if I came upstairs to grab a coffee, lunch, etc he would chat, ask me to do something or where was something, ask what's for lunch?....it was so distracting and all these little interruptions ate into my productivity time so my work day was extended. It took a bit of adjustment but we figured it out. It helped that he came to understand that when I'm in my office I can't be disturbed unless it's important (or more than once an hour or so) and we were on separate floors (me in the basement and him on the main floor watching tv, resting, etc). I also made sure to get out of the house for a few minutes each day, usually with the dog, so I had some alone time or I went shopping for a bit and ran errands alone. It's hard when you work at home and have your schedule disrupted, that's for sure.

 

Just to help him get used to not being able to talk with me any ole time he wanted....at the beginning I would purposely ignore his yell down the stairs to me which I heard but later would apologize and say I didn't hear b/c I was busy, focused on a work thing...I was in the work zone He started to get the idea lol.

 

And yes....not just talking me to but me talking to him could be a time sucker too...so I had to be just as careful to limit my interaction with him during my work time. I think I found it easier than him though. I was able to focus and get my work done but he would get bored or have a question and it drove him nuts to not talk to me every time he had the inkling to do so.

 

oh and we used to IM(back in the day)...it was fun and funny!

 

we actually worked together at home when Sarita was born.... it can be difficult to set the pace, but as Anne said, it is more than doable ...
It just takes some time to set the pace, but I'm sure you will be just fine

 

Well... i have a similar situation, but not at home. I work with my hubby... in the same department... his office is next door to mine. We are together all the time! We take lunch together at home. We go home from work together. We're at home together. LOL! It's a good thing we like each other. But we do have to be careful about not chatting too much during the work day. He's more of a social butterfly and needs to be around people all the time. I'm a "put my head down and work" kind of gal. I getting really annoyed by interruptions while I'm working, but he knows that so limits that to only when really necessary.

I'm sure you'll figure out a good routine in no time. Just be open with each other and make it clear when it's okay to interrupt and when it's not. Maybe if you plan "breaks" mid-morning and mid-afternoon to just have a snack or a cup of coffee together (and to chat) you'll be more productive on the other times.

 

I ditto the suggestion abt selective hearing. If guys can do it, why can't we?!

DH and I were both laid off for a period of time (and I had a baby during that time, too), so we were in the house together a lot more than in the past. We had to have separate spaces to job search/interview, and I had to be VERY CLEAR when I needed a break from the baby e.g. 'This is a baby. It needs to be taken care of by a grownup. That's you. Bye.' before fleeing the scene.

 

I'm sure after an adjustment period you will both find a routine that works.

 

Ditto Karen. Hubs and I both office out of home; in fact, when he joined his new firm, he took over my office, and I moved my work area into a separate room. The one office doesn't not work for us, as I'm like Karen and "turtle in" when I work, and he's constantly on conference calls. Separate spaces with doors, a must for us. He needs talk interaction - I don't like to surface until I have to, like to run to school and pick up the kid, or change laundry loads. It's important to gently establish boundaries, lovingly - we've both traded "Honey, I love you, you know this. Now scram, I need to get this out... and a closed door means "I'm buried, I'm not available until I come out".

Some other friends in similar situations treat the closed door even more seriously - as in if you need to contact each other during the workday, it is by phone, just as if the office was not in the home. UPS deliveries, laundry, kid pickup, etc, not part of the equation to the "away" worker. If you're in a "home" area, i.e. the kitchen, then you are at home and available for daddy/mama/partner duties.

Good luck! our drycleaning bills are now non-existant in comparison, however our family coffee needs are now Ridiculous. At least 8x higher.

 

Tim and I met at work and, like Karen, we spent all day/every day together and had lunch together, commuting time, etc. That was several years ago. LOL. Now if he works from home for more than a day or two, it drives me nuts. But that is because we share an office space. And when he's home, I have to keep Kennedy (the 4-year old) quiet(er), which means I get no computer time = cranky me. LOL.

You'll have to keep us posted on how it goes!! I'm sure with the way you are describing things, that it will all work out.

 

We did that for a while (maybe two years or so). I homeschool (three kids) and work from home (part time - maybe 3-5 hours a week). Hubs worked from a desk in our bedroom - the only extra space we had converted into our homeschool room. It was fine while I was teaching - No need to go upstairs and the kids were occupied. But once school was over it could get annoying because I felt like I could not even go in my own room - which was my only escape from the kids. Your husband having a specific space - outside of your space - will be a big bonus.

In the end it did not work for my husband because he was too distracted at home - always thinking about his "honey do" list or straying to more amusing pursuits that were present at home - not to mention the kids being loud when finished with school. He moved to working at a near-by coffee shop because he could concentrate better.

The hardest part for me was feeling like I could not move about freely for fear of disturbing him, but other than that things were fine for me. I am like you - I like having time to myself - some quiet, but it was not that much difference. It was actually really nice to have him home for lunch. I enjoyed having another adult to talk with during the break.

But it does all depend on personality. My husband is fairly quiet natured and really wanted to get his work done. I think we disturbed him more than he disturbed us.

 

I'm in a somewhat similar situation where my mum is unemployed atm so when im doing uni assignments at home i occasionally have to say I need a few hours in peace but so far its working ok as its only been 3ish weeks, if it lasts for months we could be in trouble as we are too similar. One positive though is we are eating better meals now that she has time.