Practice Management

No, I am not a psychologist.  I am not a psychiatrist.  I am not a sociologist.  I do not know ology for a whole in the ground.  I am pure and simply an attorney that works from his home, and has since 1999 or so.

But, I am also a dad, a parent, and somebody that had an opportunity, as short as it was, to actually know what my kids were doing, what they were up to, and had an opportunity to give them a different perspective on life.  And, I might say, they did the same for me.

Most are grown now and my contribution is money in trying to get them through college and professional school.

I have done it both ways.  I have worked in the big office towers, getting up and leaving before my children were up, and getting home often after or just before they went to bed.  Working weekends and through vacations (as few as those were).  I have also chunked it all, moved home, and had an opportunity to interact (in all of the good ways, happy ways, nasty ways and frustrating ways) with my children.

If 90% of success is just showing up, working at home is the child rearing version of this.

From this vantage point, I can tell you that being with your children when they grow up can change your child's view of the world.  Working from home in full view of the eruption that is family life can change your child's entire perspective of life and how to manage.

Do not get me wrong, children love Disneyland Dads.  Most often they do not need you to hover over them 24/7.  But, it means something that you are there, you are close, and your are in proximity as to what is happening in their lives.

From their perspective they get to see you at work and at play.  They can see you when your in the money and when you are broke.  They can learn for themselves the concept of work-life balance.  They can see the application of what they are learning now and how to apply it later in life.  This helps.  It makes them better students if nothing else.

I see so many professionals today that work so hard for their families that it leaves them very little time with their families.  When their children become teenagers and young adults something goes terribly wrong as to the friends with whom they associate, or drugs, or whatever.  Part of it is growing up.  When this happens the parent then tries to intervene, then tries to get more involved in their child life, tries then to restore a sense of balance and familiarity.  Only then it is often too late, their child has become acclimated to their lack of time, or the effort backfires for obvious reasons.

I have been blessed with not having these problems.  I would like to take full credit, but I am certain that in a good part of it was that during their formative years I was there.