It can be difficult for parents to find a reliable source of childcare while they are working. If your child has special needs, then you may find it hard to find caregivers that have the knowledge about how to properly care for your child. Telecommuting may open up some options. It also can bring on new problems.
There are a lot of companies that allow employees to work from home, or telecommute. In general, this is something that may be possible for office workers, or people who do data entry. If your job is in retail, or the food service industry, then you will never have the opportunity to work from home.
Parents of kids who have special needs can face certain difficulties. Your child may become sick more often, and more seriously, than other children typically do. Many employers are not able to understand why you need to leave work so often, to care for your sick child. They may penalize workers who frequently need to take days off, or to leave work early. This puts undue stress on the parents who are just trying to take good care of their child.
In some cases, working from home might provide a solution for this problem. You might have to log into your company’s website, or server, at a specific time, just like you would have to start work at a certain time at the office. Other work from home situations allow people to make their own hours.
This can give parents of special needs children the flexibility they need to make sure their child’s needs are met. It can allow a parent to be employed, without having to work around the attendance rules that would be required at an office. It could also be a way to save on the cost of daycare.
However, there are some disadvantages of telecommuting that you also need to consider. A study that was published in the Journal of Business and Psychology found that many parents that work from home feel torn between fulfilling their job responsibilities and their home responsibilities.
In other words, you could feel stressed about the things you are not getting done at home while you are working. You also may feel as though you are doing a poor job of taking care of your child while you are telecommuting. You might feel worried about the work you are not completing while you are cleaning, cooking, or attending to your child. This could lead some parents to feel burnout, because they are not able to find “downtime”.
Ideally, the best way to handle working from home is to create clear boundaries. You can’t assume that you can finish your work while your child is napping. You may need another family member to be responsible for child care while you are working. You are going to have to schedule yourself some downtime, so that you can get some relief from stress.
Image by John Karakatsanis on Flickr