In the year 2012, I took a decision to become a consultant ..So this also meant partly working from home  whenever possible at times to step up the support system for the other two members of the family whenever needed(whenever possible!).But let me add, it was definitely a very pleasant experience coupled with challenges! .More than anything else it was a learning experience, after having come out of that stage now I am able to appreciate in a much better manner when I look back.:(

(Note# I found in early part of this journey the Bangalore #startup hubs and co-workplaces quite exciting.Believe me those places gave me the feeling that I am not alone. Places like Cobalt are quite good to get started# )

The first lesson I learnt in that working from home journey was that while opting to work from home at times to take up additional responsibility of the home on times like those long holidays for the school  is that ,I am not doing a favor to the family! But I was probably making it bit difficult for them by giving only my partial attention .This was evident in the first week of the first holiday season back then itself when my son mentioned to me that,” Dad, you are just physically available here” as I was busy typing something on my system simultaneously answering a phone call when he was also trying to catch up with my attention!I realized that I am just being a bit selfish to complete my work and I needed to do it in a better manner so that my son wouldn’t feel neglected. So I learned in a very hard manner the C.S.Lewis quote…Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work!

Work for the day needed to be planned in such a manner that there was sufficient time for the child ..I handled this issue by learning to start my work very early in the morning. I used this early morning slot for interacting virtually with those from other geographical regions for whom the time was just right.That was easy but the challenges came again in different forms. Meetings where it was required to be physically present even during those long holidays and there are couple of such long holidays in each quarter! or more I think. Because we also have unexpected holidays and even exam time with study holidays so this list goes on and on.

Since we have support staff available, I used to schedule those meetings banking on them but as in “Murphy’s law” sometimes it so happened that those are also the days they couldn’t turn up!

Sometimes it turned out to be a better idea to schedule a late evening technical presentation.

Yet another challenge was going out of station for work .This meant that I have to find the less demanding days for my better half and try to schedule my meetings away from my base station for these periods.

Many of you who are reading this might be able to appreciate this well, if you ever had a similar situation!

The most important aspect I learnt in the process was that if you are working from home anytime you need to give your kids their space.

And the best part of it…Soon you realize that they have grown up and independent like I realized to my pleasant surprise during the last summer vacation period .I have been mostly able to move and operate as per the demands of my job and even added some more to it.Today I don’t need to do this. In fact now with  “BVPRGJ consultants” areas of operation growing ,A certain rhythm is established and life is a lot more easier.

Today we are less anxious as parents . I have moved away from that phase of working from home and totally operates from my office.

So if you happen to be working parents, all that is required is a little adjustment to make sure that at least one parent will have more time with the kids for a certain period of time.

Agree that all other support facilities which you can afford by paying money is available but I strongly suggest that at least one parent need to make sure that more quality time is spent with kids during this period of time in their life which will get over quickly.

So everyone will pass through this stage in life and if you are working parents please make the best out of it.You will enjoy for sure.And you won’t get it back!

It is really an enjoyable challenge, something that you could really cherish later in life.Joy lies in making sure that they also enjoy this part of the journey.I can vouch from my own experiences that they will grow up being more responsible.

 

Thanks for reading!…Here is one more link ,in case if you would like to read more!

Sometime back, I posted an article about start-ups which had over 9000 +views …You may like to read this .

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Text Copyright © 2016 by Prakashan B.V (BVPRGJ CONSULTANTS )— All Rights Reserved

#This post will never be complete without this article which I posted sometime back.

Thank You!