When you work in a traditional office set-up, and your child is sick, working from home, for the time being, can be considered but for how long, you don’t know. Ideally, it doesn’t work that way. You just got to deal with it by the time you are finally back to work, physically. Been there a lot. To those who have followed how my youngest daughter would often fall sick knew very well how I struggled with absences and keeping up with the office works. I knew from my heart that there were times when my co-workers would roll their eyes because I had to take another sick leave with my daughter.
If you are a mom, you know very well how difficult it could get when dealing with a sick child. Either way, working from home or from the office are both the same. Let’s then list down the advantages and disadvantages when dealing with and caring for a sick child:
Advantages:
(1) It would keep you at peace, that you get to stay connected with both your child, and at work, at the same time.
(2) You get to see your child’s condition at all times.
(3) You can give in to his/her requests in between.
(4) You will immediately see the need for emergency compared to when you are in the office and you received a call that your child needed to be rushed to the hospital.
(5) Your child can cuddle up next to you without going under-time to make it possible.
(6) You have that peace of mind knowing that your child is just next to you.
Disadvantages:
(1) You get distracted each time your child calls for you and just wants to cling on you.
(2) When all your child’s weight is on your dominant arm/hand and you’re typing one-handed, slower than your usual typing speed.
(3) When your child throws up everywhere, and you panic that you suddenly unplugged your laptop, that it was too late to realize that you took the battery off of it. This is my true story by the way.
(4) When you suddenly feel guilty that you need to get your work done instead of doting on your child.
(5) When your child cries for your attention, then you get distracted in between of your deadlines.
(6) When your patience is suddenly replaced with irritation because you had no proper sleep watching her, and yet you need to stay focused at what you are doing because it’s a manic Monday!
(7) That she wanted you, only YOU, to feed her and it’s not yet your break time.
I could go on and on with the disadvantages but if I were to choose between working in the office or from home, I would still choose the latter. Advantages may be less, but the fact that you can still be a MOM even though you have to be working is more than enough. Your child can feel your hand and cuddle with you anytime, and that’s already a relief for the both of you.
