One benefit of me working from home is that I am there for my kids a lot more than I ever was when I worked in an office and commuted. I take them to school every day. I am there at dinner time every evening and for bedtime.
I was also been blessed with a six month paternity leave which gave me the opportunity to play an equal part in raising my third child.
These benefits are obviously great for my relationship with my children, but there was also an unexpected benefit. By being around more at home my children have a very different experience of parenthood, and how that relates to gender roles.
I recently took a “Gender/career” test at Project Implicit and discovered that I have a strong bias towards seeing women in carer roles and men in career roles. This is not a surprise since that was my experience of my family and my peers when we were growing up. I also suspect there are biological reasons why this bias will always be present to some extent.
However I hope that by being at home, my children will get a different picture of their parents roles and will themselves have less of this implicit bias. Maybe I’ll get them to do the test…
If you want to work from home then come join us!