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I’ve been a stay at home mom for three years now. I’ve been a work at home mom for about two years. I am incredibly blessed to be able to stay home with my kids while building my income for my family. I get to raise my babies, homeschool, and take my kids to their therapies all while making money doing what I love.

Sometimes, though, I miss my office.

See, when I worked full time, I worked managing an office for a towing company. From 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday I was alone in my tiny office in the middle of nowhere. I had occasional customers stop in, and of course I had to answer the phone, but for the most part I was alone.

Sometimes I Miss My Office

I Miss the Quiet

I have three boys six and under and a six month old baby girl. Quiet doesn’t really happen in our house.

I miss being able to shut my office door and sit and quietly read with focus. I miss being able to have a conversation without constant “don’t do that!“s and “please, I’m on the phone!“s.

I miss the quiet of my office.

I Miss the Focus

Ohhhh the focus I had when I worked a traditional 8-5. I could sit at my desk and work for four hours without any distractions. I could work on invoicing, customer service, or anything without a care in the world.

Now?

I’m lucky if I can get through a blog post without a distraction. I schedule social media while nursing Miss S, I respond to customer emails in between pouring cereal for my three boys who always need more cereal, and I write posts while watching TV with my husband.

Don’t get me wrong, I love that I can fit my job in around my schedule, but sometimes I miss the focus I had when I worked in an office.

I Miss the Structure

When you dictate your life, you can give it so. much. structure. I got to my office every morning at 7:50. It gave me time to get my systems up and running by 8. I spent my morning focusing on invoicing and other customer service phone calls, and then at noon I had lunch. After lunch I’d finish up any extra work, and then I’d spend the rest of my shift working on homework or watching Netflix, taking breaks to handle any other calls that came in.

Now? My day to day changes every single day, and most of the time it’s up to the whims of toddlers and preschoolers. I take them to therapy, I take them to tBall, I make their meals, I teach them lessons, I kiss their booboos.

Everything that I do during the day is about my kids first, and then my work. I can’t guarantee I’ll be available for a client call at 3, and I can’t go meet a friend for coffee on my lunch break.

But I Don’t Miss Missing My Babies

There are a lot of things I miss about my office and my life when I was working, but I don’t miss missing my babies.

With Mr. C and A-Man, I missed a lot of time with them as babies. I was lucky in that my Mother-in-Law was always willing to watch them, so I knew they were being loved on and cared for, but I missed out on a lot of snuggles!

With Baby M and Miss S, I’m able to be there a lot more. I was/am able to nurse longer than I could with the boys. I get to snuggle the kids all I want, homeschool them, and have random dance parties throughout the day.

Sometimes, I miss my office, but I don’t think I’d go back for all the money in the world.

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About Kaylene

Kaylene George is an autistic self-advocate, author, and mother of five, including one autistic child. She realized her own autism as an adult shortly after her son received his initial diagnosis. Suddenly the parts of her that seemed so “weird” to society had an answer. Since then, Kaylene has passionately shared about her experiences with autism from both sides of the great divide between parents and autistic self-advocates on AutisticMama.com.