What do you do for a living...

Allison recently made a comment that she can't see me working a normal 9 to 5 job anytime soon. It's true, I have enjoyed my time off from typical full-time work and school . The last regular job I had was a summer law clerk at a Riverside law firm. Before that, I worked as an Instructional Technologist for Pomona College with a pretty laid-back work schedule. So besides my brief summer work, it has been three years since I worked a normal job. That is not to say I haven't worked. For the last few years, I have been paid as a consultant for various web-related work as a web developer/designer/usability consultant. The same is true for Allison. She has worked in various PR/writing positions for several companies without stepping a foot inside their offices (until recently).

While working at home is not a new phenomena, what I find most interesting are other peoples' responses to being self-employed. Most people think you are caught up in some dot-com scheme, don't actually work at all, or are unable to find a respectable job. Especially for Allison, various people have made disparaging comments about working from home as it relates to her parenting ability. For some reason these people think that working from home significantly diminishes the quality of parenting. I think it is a great example of work-family balance for our children, lets Allison pursue her professional goals, and gives me a chance to spend time with our children. It reminds me of a somewhat ignorant comment a high school friend said to us upon learning about our plans to have children. He warned Allison that it would be impossible for her to puruse her professional interests and have children. While that might be technically correct, having children has revealed several interesting and more exiting opportunities than the typical 9-5 job.

Allison's professional pursuits have also given me a great opportunity to spend time with our children. Every day Anna asks me where we are going and I try to think of something fun to do. Although our trips to the grocery store may seem boring, there is always some excitement involved in lugging around three small children (and I try to add something fun like our mini-hikes). So although I do not currently work a typical job, I have found caring for the kids much more demanding and rewarding.

A gratuitous picture of Adam. Enjoy!