I work from home, and I don't love it

It's supposed to be the epitome of work-life balance. The best way for busy mothers to balance both work and family is to cut out the commute entirely. Make teleworking appealing and all of the women will want to come back to the work force in droves, right?

Well, I work from home.

And I don't love it.

To be fully honest, I don't hate working from home, and some days I really appreciate it. I know that the time that my peers spend commuting is time that I can have back with my family. If I still work from home when my boys are in public school (they are too young right now), I won't have to pay for wraparound care. I can be here, at home, when they get on the bus in the morning. I can be here in the afternoon when they get off of the bus.

By all logical measures this is the best arrangement, so why don't I love it, like I feel like I'm supposed to?

1. I feel like I have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously. To be clear, I work for a traditional company. Most people are in the office, though a few other people do work at home. I am very sensitive to the idea that I am not actually "working" all day. People assume I have my kids here with me. I don't. People assume I clean the house while I'm working. I don't. Nor do I cook dinner, do laundry, or run errands. In fact, I ran more errands during the day when I worked in the office because I didn't feel like I had to prove myself all the time. I do try to have very clear boundaries (I work during working hours; I focus on the kids/household in the evenings), but it is a constant battle against scope creep.

2. It's isolating. I spend most days inside of my house. My main interactions with other people are conference calls until I pick the kids up from daycare, where I usually see their teachers for 2 minutes before I start chasing the kids across the parking lot. By the time my husband comes home, I am so anxious to just chat, but he's exhausted and the kids have nearly lost it. I really miss that time around the water cooler, informal chats in the hallway, or even just grabbing lunch with someone else. I've thought about starting a networking group for other work-at-home people in my area, but I have no idea how to do that. It's one of my 3493 ideas that is on the back burner for now.

3. It's much harder to get noticed. When there's a new, high-profile project coming up, the first person that will come to the boss's mind is the person they see every day. I have to proactively make sure that I am in the front of everyone's mind, all the time, as I don't have the luxury of those regular, daily interactions. I have a high need for achievement, and working from home makes that a bit more challenging to keep moving on to new things.

At the end of this, I will say that the benefits outweigh the negatives at this point in my life, so I don't see myself going back to a traditional office job any time in the near future. The flexibility is really invaluable while my kids are this little. If I could design the perfect job, though, it would be one that had me in the office 2-3 days / week and working from home the other days.