by Rae Anna Blake

Created on: September 30, 2008   Last Updated: October 07, 2008

How does one find the balance between work and life? That is truly a question that has no easy answer and can be drastically different from one person to the next. I am currently in the midst of juggling my own personal life with that of my work life and I know that what I am doing contributes to my family and their well being as a whole. Do I wish I had an opportunity to be away from home less? Yes, but right now I am fully aware that working in my home with my young children running about could only be a recipe for disaster.

Having had the notion that I would love to work from home or at least be my own boss,it is deciding when, what, and how to do just that has been my biggest obstacle. Ideally, I do believe if you are able and willing to seperate your personal life from your work life you may be able to find the perfect balance that fits the needs of your family. The idea of working from home is appealing to many, but realistically it is not for everyone. In being your own boss it may seem you have more time with your children, but you can be very busy and that can limit the interaction and quality time you actually spend with them. Thus resulting in less time actually spent with your family.

How do we balance working from home, working outside the home, commute time, errand running, cooking dinner, helping our children with home, attending work and personal activities, and still find time to wrangle in some quality family time that is not centered around running somewhere or work related? We were in an era of having extra income in households and it was feasible to pay someone else to do our cleaning or to pick up dinner on the way home in the hopes of saving time, but now that is becoming increasingly difficult. With the economy in a downward spiral and jobs and money becoming increasingly scarce, people simply do not have the additional expendable income anymore. Fuel prices and the cost of child care alone are causing many families to re-evaluate the need for both parents to work outside the home. In some cases, that is not an option, and the idea of working from home via the internet seems to be calling many to the virtual world.

There really is no clear cut answer to what is the best way to juggle your work life and your family life. It is apparent that the need to work and earn an income is necessity, but deciding on the cost of that need is where we must make some decisions. I had the opportunity to work for an individual that had no idea what it meant

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