After proving myself in my first two months on the job, I am now eligible to telecommute once a week. As I jotted down my “work from home day” in my datebook today, all sorts of hopes and aspirations took over.

Since i’ll be working from home one day, I will:
- Make a nice homemade dinner for my kids and myself
- Pick up that suit at the cleaners that I haven’t had time to get since October
- Take a few moments to visit with my stay-at-home mom friends at preschool dropoff (since i’m never there)
- Take a break at lunchtime and do two miles on the elliptical
- Read the entire newspaper
- Call to set up doctor and dentis appointments overdue

Oh, and work.

I think the flexibility to work from home is great, but I might be putting too much pressure on myself to do more then, making it harder than the day has to be.

I will not let my company down from home! I am confident I will be a strong employee here or at the office. I wish I was as confident I will actually do all these motherly things noted above. Check back in later in the week and i’ll let you know if I let myself down on that front.

Have you read about the study showing that kids pick up the slack on housework when their fathers work longer hours? For each extra hour a father spends at work, his children do two more minutes of housework a week on average, the researchers found, but the same doesn’t hold true when it’s moms out at work more.

The research study, involving more than 3500 families where both husband and wife work full-time outside the home, appears in November’s Journal of Family Issues. On average, the moms in the study worked 37 hours a week and the husbands 47 hours a week.

I would be fascinated to see a similar study focusing on households where single moms are raising the kids, especially since I am about to start a new, full-time job in ten days. Will my 4 and 8-year old sons do more chores when I work more? It may be time to refocus on the “chores chart” we made four months ago, which outlines the boys’ bi-weekly chores (the weeks the cleaning lady is off, they’re on) and which they used to tackle with gusto. I’m the one who hasn’t been disciplined enough to enforce it.

As my time at home dwindles, what else can I do to ensure the kids start helping around the house more? The study also found that the more parents stress about work-life balance, the more housework children do. Relief..if my stress shows just a little bit, they’ll get to work, and I don’t have to feel guilty that I’m not putting on a happy face every second of the day! Shouldn’t boys learn the art of juggling — just a little bit?