The top 50 companies in entertainment, media, sports, technology, and more. New workplaces, new food sources, new medicine—even an entirely new economic system. The apps, tips, tactics, and brain hacks to help you work smarter instead of harder. I pay boatloads of money to this place to take my kid off my hands for four measly hours a day, and it wants me to cancel my conference call with a client so I can come watch them watch my kid?

But that is not what you get to do when you are a work-at-home mom. Every day, I hear it: Being a stay-at-home mom is hard, and being a working mom is hard, but being a work-at-home mom is the suckiest choice of all.

I know how it feels to leave your kids every day and go into an office. I remember sitting at my desk and dying to see my kids in the middle of the day. I remember going back to work after maternity leave and locking myself in the breast pump room just so I could cry my eyes out where no one would see. And sure, part of it was the hormones, but most of it was a super-strong maternal desire to be with my kids, the same desire that makes me want to squeeze their cute tushies whenever I see them.

You know that saying, absence makes the heart grow fonder? Constant presence makes you want to grab the nearest cup of bleach and drink it. So being a working mom and being a stay-at-home mom are both crazy hard.

But being a work-at-home mom is hard in a whole different kind of way.

Very Important Client who paid for those Barbies. Day in, day out, I have to tell my kids to leave me the hell alone, and I constantly feel bad about it.

4 truths about working and stay-at-home moms | BabyCenter Blog

Do they think my work is more important than they are? But sometimes it has to be. And you know what really feels terrible? So yes, it is a perk that I get to have lunch with them sometimes.

And unless I have a video conference call damn you, Skype! But being a work-at-home mom is wrought with all sorts of guilt. I pray my kids get it one day. I pray they understand that the reason I work from home is so I can see them more. Karen Alpert is the author of the New York Times bestseller I Heart My Little A-Holes and the Baby Sideburns blog. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

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World Changing Ideas New workplaces, new food sources, new medicine—even an entirely new economic system. Work Smart The apps, tips, tactics, and brain hacks to help you work smarter instead of harder. By Karen Alpert 5 minute Read.

Working Mom vs Stay at Home Mom

About the author Karen Alpert is the author of the New York Times bestseller I Heart My Little A-Holes and the Baby Sideburns blog. Fast Company Daily Newsletter Sign Up. Magazine The CEO Of Flywheel Sports Wants You To Celebrate Your Failures. Magazine David Droga Picks His Five Key Campaigns.

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