Work at Home Productivity Tips -

is Unemployed. Many who enjoy work at home employment are finding out the same thing, much to their surprise!

Many of us who work at home have felt the sting of feeling unvalidated.

It often starts the day we begin, with the struggle to be taken seriously by our family and friends, who just don’t believe you are actually “working”, or truly believe that you can or should drop everything at a moments notice for everything and anything that comes along.

Then there’s tax time, for me a humiliating experience because of course, work at home employment means that all legitimate expenses are run through the business. It’s good for taxes, but it’s not good for my ego considering what is left as “my contribution” by the time we are finished, for all of my hours spent, sleepless nights and days of exhaustion. It doesn’t help that our female accountant, who has a “job” (actually it’s her business but it’s outside of the home, I wonder if she’d be as respected if her offices where at her house) speaks to my husband and acts like I am not in the room, even though she dinged us an obscene fee largely because of my business, who does she think paid for that?

But maybe the icing on the cake is going to the bank with my husband, feeling like a child with her dad, to get a line of credit to replace my van that we had to take off the road because someone ran into our front end and somehow screwed it up and the motor blew. We have no idea who or even when, the damage was a small but serious hole in the front end. A mystery.

When calling for the appointment, I specifically heard my husband tell them on the phone that I had a home business. When we got there, the lady, a very nice lady by the way, had me down as unemployed. So I had to sit through that, sinking farther in my chair every time she said it, even my husband was squirming, until she finally asked me what I did do, or something similar, I really don’t remember, and I told her I have my own business.

That’s not even touching the fact that my husband over the years has worked away most of the time, leaving everything involved in the household and raising three kids to me, while running my business. Still, I had the feeling I was a slug, because I’m officially unemployed.

(not even touching the issue that even if I didn’t have my business, it’s obvious that staying at home to make your kids the priority is not considered a legitimate way to spend your time “on the outside”, as I said, the lady was nice, but had I said I merely stay home to look after our kids, I would have felt the need to sink further in my seat. That is another huge issue that I won’t get started on today :0)

No one ever even asked what I make, but I was automatically not listed a principal on the loan, because I’m considered officially unemployed because I am employed by working at home for myself, no questions asked.

Just as women had a long way to go to gain respect in the world, me thinks that work at home people still have a hard road to follow if they want to get any credit or more importantly, to feel like a contrbuting member of society.

Is work at home employment the same as being unemployed? I am sure that sometimes it could be, but I really think that there should be a “form” in place so that there is at least a chance to be counted.

And for the record, stay at home mom’s are working mom’s, but the pay sucks, I admit :0)

I don’t appear to be the only one, here is a blog post written at Mom Gadget’s – Penalties for Working at Home.

Related posts:

1. Work and Family Balance – Your Top Work at Home Priority
2. Your Biggest Work at Home Challenge
3. March Break and the Work at Home Mom
4. WAHM Business Start Up Series