Around the Clock
The joy and pain of being a work-at-home parent.
by Steve Almond
September 10, 2007
As for earplugs or headphones, I refuse to wear them. I'm not going to be AWOL while my wife's screaming for help because Josephine just bonked her head on the radiator grate. The bottom line is that babies — first babies especially — are powerful creatures. They drink your attention like blood. They will not, in the words of Glenn Close, be ignored.
The times I really miss working in an office, though, are at night, when I should be focused on my wife and daughter, but wind up with my computer on my lap, trying to squeeze out a bit more work product on the family dime. My wife sometimes jokes, not so funnily, that she expects to find me spooning my computer before long. In fact, I'm simply trying to keep up with the many deadlines involved when you're trying to earn enough money to (for instance) insure your daughter's health.
Which brings me to all those office-dwelling folk who impose the deadlines, and who have about as much empathy for new parents as, say, Genghis Khan. A few weeks ago, for instance, an assigning editor emailed me an urgent request to talk. She couldn't get through on our landline, because we had unplugged it so the baby could nap. I emailed her my cellphone number, with the request that she call in two hours, or email me her concerns. Instead, she called my cell immediately — and woke the baby.
At which point I wanted to scream: "What part of I've got a sleeping baby in my house who will raise hell on earth if woken from her nap did you not understand?" But of course I knew the answer. It's the part about the baby sleeping inWhat part of I've got a sleeping baby in my house who will raise hell on earth if woken from her nap did you not understand? my house. Because this woman, like so many young, ambitious types, doesn't have children. She can't imagine a household that does, let alone a household where one might work.
And she's not alone. I am continually dealing with men and women who can't seem to fathom why I'm so uptight about pinning down when I'll get an edited manuscript back, or a travel itinerary. They don't get that jerking around my schedule is actually jerking around my wife and kid — no matter how many times I politely try to explain this.
©2007 Steve Almond and Nerve Media
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