I was just wondering if there are other entrepreneurs or telecommuters out there who work from home and want to chat about the benefits and stresses of trying to fit work around taking care of a kiddo with special needs. I'd love to talk with others and share tips!

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Susan
Mom to Cassie
(11/10/98 DS, Partial Complex Seizures, Celiac Disease)

Me! And it's my chatterbox TD child that's the bigger challenge! As a writer I work in my head and that's hard to do when you can't go 60 seconds without hearing "mom-meee!"

I go to a WAHM forum and there is a section for Special Needs parents who work at home but that part has kind of died out. We can meet there - there is a wide variety of WAHM businesses and personalities represented, or we can ask Tom to create a section here for us.

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Anara
Wife to Craig (wed 3.8.03)
Mom to Clara (DS, Autism, born 8.8.05), Alan Russell (born 3.9.07)

Visit us on Facebook - I finally caved in!
Or my blog: able2able... your special needs resource directory http://www.able2able.com

I'd love to hear any tips as well! I work from home and my biggest challenge is finding a quiet spot to have a phone conversation when necessary. I'm on a cordless phone, running from room to room to get away and make a phone call.


Ibby

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Ibby
Wife to Tim- 22 years. Mother to Maggie,21; Bridget,19; Kevin,17; Sean,15; Daniel,12; Catherine,11; Robert,8; Emily,7; Maria,5; Hope, 4, AJ (Ds) June 14, 2006

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=26012b09b29bd00fe629cb&skin_id=0&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Oh, gosh, same here, Anara! I absolutely love spending time with Cass, and I really look forward to school breaks and weekends. But I program, and like writing, it can be really hard to get back into the swing of things when you're back and forth constantly. And Ibby, I ended up hiring someone to answer my business calls, and I call clients back later. Most days, I feel like I'm living in a puzzle, where every piece has to be moved around to make it all fit.

I used to be on the WAHM forum ages ago but haven't been back in years. I'll have to pop back there. I'm on a mom entrepreneur forum too, but there aren't any special needs groups. It'd be great to connect with others here and share tips.

_________________
Susan
Mom to Cassie
(11/10/98 DS, Partial Complex Seizures, Celiac Disease)

I only work on the telephone if I can place the call when AR is confirmed asleep for a nap or if I know the person I am speaking to is toddler friendly. Clara's pretty good when AR's napping but I never know when she is going to grab my arm and try to get me to play or dance. It makes interviews difficult - I have to do so much extra editing and even change my article's direction when I interview by email.

And of course, if I have a deadline or something I'm really fired up about it's guaranteed that the kids will not give me a minute to myself. My poor FB friends hear this weekly - I usually lose it by Thursday since we're still homebound and there's no place to take the kids.

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Anara
Wife to Craig (wed 3.8.03)
Mom to Clara (DS, Autism, born 8.8.05), Alan Russell (born 3.9.07)

Visit us on Facebook - I finally caved in!
Or my blog: able2able... your special needs resource directory http://www.able2able.com

Oh, I bet interviews are tough! Do you have to tape them too? When I was doing custom scripting, I used to request instant messaging. It was so much easier than calling when Cass was around.

I'm right there with you on the deadlines. I swear, Cassie has an internal virus release system that goes off the second I utter the words "I have to get this project done this weekend." (And I get an emergency call almost every time we're at the hospital or out of town, but that's a whole other story.)

Did you ever find it hard to balance? I'm not super proud of this, but when Cass was little, I used to occasionally read her a PHP book as a nighttime story when I had a big project and needed to buff up on arrays or regular expressions or something. She'd laugh like crazy - something about that book must have seemed so funny to her! For years, she'd ask me to read her that book. And many times I'd print out emails and hide them behind the dollhouse while my doll would 'talk' to her doll about the email in a sing songy voice. I figured as long as she had fun, and I was technically playing with her, it counted, right? Sigh. The things we have to do to make it all work.

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Susan
Mom to Cassie
(11/10/98 DS, Partial Complex Seizures, Celiac Disease)