Home working

Homeworking has lots of advantages, especially when you have children. It is great to be able to schedule work to fit around school hours and cuts down on travelling. But it has its share of problems too. For starters there are the school holidays, I know there are many holiday clubs you can drop your kids at but when you work commission only it is difficult to justify the cost. It has to be booked weeks in advance and you don’t know if you will earn the money to cover the cost. I have tried using the clubs one day a week but inevitably these are not the days clients wish to visit. And I am fortunate that I have family living here nearby so I can get my little treasures looked after at very short notice. Another problem is that you can end up working too much, starting early in the morning and finishing late into the evening.

So I thought I would share with you a few of the things I do to make it work for me and my family and I would love to hear your ideas too.

On a day to day basis it is fairly straight forward, I usually check my emails and messages first thing when I get up so I know if there is anything urgent that I need to add to the day. Then it is all about getting the kids there breakfast and ready for school. I also make sure I have washed up and hung my washing before we leave for school. This means once I have dropped them off I can settled straight down to work or go directly to any meetings I have arranged. The school hours here in France are very favourable to the working day. School starts at 8:45 and finishes at 16:30 so as you can see I get a good 7 hours without interruption. But this is only for four days a week as there is no school on Wednesdays at this age and as I always strive to be super mum I have a habit of volunteering to help out with school trips;

The nature of our business means that it is not really practical to leave messages and emails answered for more than 24 hours so I do always check and answer enquiries and important message on Wednesdays but that is usual all unless I have a viewing that cannot be arranged for another day.

I have to confess to being a bit of a slave to my pc and with so much of todays life conducted via social media it is difficult not to be. This often then means I will pick up my emails late into the evenings, most the time this is no problem as my hubby will be watching a documentary about machines or war etc. But we need to be careful here otherwise the work play balance gets totally messed up and you suddenly realise you haven’t had a proper conversation with your partner let only anything else for weeks. So my tip here is set aside some time, one night a week turn all the modern media off, TV included! Or meet up for lunch one day.

The other person it is easy to forget is yourself! Yes you. This for me is the hardest one, as I am sure is the same for all working parents. And don’t get me wrong I think our children deserve all the attention they get, it is important for their growth and development. But by the same count if you don’t take time out every now then you end up a burnt out wreck with nothing to offer them. In an ideal world it would be nice to set aside a bit of me time once a week, but this rarely happens, so in the real world it is more like once or twice a week. This me time can take various forms, such as a round of golf, sitting down and doing a painting, a long bath and doing my nails or just sitting watching daytime telly with no one else in the house.

So that is how I work during term time which leaves school holidays which is tricky bit. I start planning for the holidays a good couple of weeks in advance, doing a push for new intakes so I have stock’ of properties for the holidays. Tying up any lose ends, just as you would with any job before a holiday. Also I try to squeeze in a ‘me’ day so I am nice and refreshed before we start, because as we all know fun packed school holidays are exhausting.

I have three children, an eight year old and six year old twins so they are old another to under the concept of planning. At the beginning of the holidays, the shortest here in France is two weeks and the summer holidays nearly nine, we sit down with a pen and paper to make a list of things we want to do. This can be anything from going from making cakes and painting or going to local attractions like the zoo. For the shorter holidays we aim for one thing per a day, obviously over 9 weeks this would be nigh on impossible so we list things to do according to the weather. In the list is always include ‘spend the day with Nana and Grandad’ ready for the days I have to drop them off.

Then the deal is if they behave (reasonable well) in the morning we get to do an activity in the afternoon. Then most days I will get up and start work around 7am and depending on what is going on work through till 10 or 11am while the kids entertain themselves. Yes this often means watching telly or playing the Wii, not ideal I know but we do make up for it in the afternoons. Then I whizz round and do the household stuff before getting lunch and heading out for the afternoon or getting messy with paints or flour. I usually put in another hour or two after before sitting down with hubby to snuggle up on the sofa.

So that’s what I do in an ideal world, as with all things in life it doesn’t always go according to plan but overall it works.

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BlogPost by Helen WELLS – Agent for the Avranches area in the Manche (50) – Normandie, France

Mob : 06 27 56 55 31 | Email : avranches@normandiemaisons.com