Taking Time Off When You Work at Home

Maternity Leaves for the Work-at-Home Mom

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When your mother tells you about the sacrifices she made for you, she's not kidding. She probably put her career on hold for several years to stay at home with you. All her friends were doing it, and hey, she didn't want to be considered a bad mother.

We modern moms have more options, thanks in part to the Internet and its most popular feature: e-mail. The 'Net makes it possible for us to work outside the traditional office setting, a door (or a folding screen) away from our children, as telecommuting salaried employees and as self-employed, home-based entrepreneurs.

"Most work-at-home moms have chosen [that path] so they can be home with their children," says Cheryl Demas, editor of WAHM.com, a newsletter and online magazine for work-at-home moms.

But working from home is still working, and every working mom needs a maternity leave after giving birth. Planning that leave can often be more difficult for work-at-home moms than for their time card-punching sisters, but there are some basic guidelines that can smooth the process.

Working Mom Be Flexible
Demas points out that working from home affords women a degree of versatility not found in the office environment. "We usually find that our work arrangements allow us to be so flexible that we can fit work back into our daily routines quite soon," she says.