Just because today is Halloween doesn’t mean it’s the only day you can get use out of your costumes. Kids love dress up, and they love it even more when parents get involved.

There’s a lot to be said for working at home. From my perspective, a lot of it is good, but it’s certainly not for everyone. But if you have the right attitude and skills, it can sure beat working away from home.

1. Working at home is hard.

Sure, you can schedule yourself as you like… provided you can get the things done you have to in order to succeed. That means sacrifice for most people, especially in the early days. The The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich doesn’t happen for everyone, and generally takes a long time to build up to.

There are distractions at home, both fun and tedious. You have to have more control over your own impulses. You may also have to deal with family members and friends who just don’t get it and think you’re available all the time.

2. You won’t get rich quick.

That whole get rich quick thing… illusion. Fantasy.

The huge majority of people who work at home aren’t going to get rich, quickly or otherwise. But a decent living may be earned, one sufficient to support your family. Or not. It depends on your business model, the time and effort you’re willing to put into it, the money you can put into it and whether or not your marketing efforts get you the results you want.

3. If it’s for you, you won’t want to trade it for anything.

That’s me, in a nutshell right there. And maybe that’s where I belong. I just cannot picture anymore doing anything else.

4. It’s not for everyone.

That’s a simple truth. Not everyone is cut out for working at home, whether they get a work at home job or start a home business. The solitude gets to a lot of people. So does the flexibility. The things that may be most positive to those who love working from home are negatives to other people.

5. Your work is always there, waiting for you.

It is so easy to go and work at times I should be doing something else. Having fun with my family, for example. Even on vacation it’s hard to be away, knowing that if I’m not working, no one else is going to get the work done unless I pay them for it.

It’s very common for people who work at home to work more hours than those who work outside the home. It’s just so easy to put in more time. Not everyone who works at home will do this, but there’s the eternal urge to check email, make that blog post, check stats, brainstorm a new marketing idea, write up that new idea you just got in the middle of dinner….

You get the idea.

Head out on a family walk and collect leaves as you go. You don’t have to go anywhere special to do this; pretty much any neighborhood is going to have a good variety of leaves you can pick up.

Leaves can be collected and glued to pages, or used in craft projects. You can teach your kids how to identify various leaves, something mine find truly fascinating.

Of course, you’ll need to know something about leaves yourself. You don’t want to go hiking off on a trail and find out you’ve picked poison oak or poison ivy. That’s not a fun way to make a day memorable… until you can laugh about it some years down the line.

Kids really do get into computers young these days. My son is 3 years old and has recently been allowed to discover the delights of the computer. He’s fascinated by the games he can play on sites such as PBS Kids and Starfall. He has been surprising me with how quickly he gets the idea.

And then there’s his fascination with the interior of the computer. Or any other machine, really. This kid is really curious about what’s inside of this stuff. Thank goodness he can’t take anything important apart yet.

It amazes me how early some of these interests start. Now that he has realized there’s more to do on these websites than just go to the places I originally directed him, I have to pay a bit more attention to what he’s doing. Mostly just because he gets stuck and frustrated when a game is completely over his skill level.

I went through a similar thing with my daughter at this age, which lead me to setting up a start page for her with all the sites she still loves to play on. She was so furious when she found out I was letting her brother use HER site!

But when it comes to the details, he’s definitely more into that part. I suspect I’ll be dealing with a lot more questions as his speech continues to improve. His vocabulary is already impressive for his age, or so the testing from his speech therapy class indicated. Just hard to understand.

I do have a site set aside for he and I to work together on one of these days. I think he’ll like having something that is about the things he enjoys doing online. Then I can just set up a profile for him and teach him to use it.

But I suspect the most trouble will come the day he really figures out how many things can be taken apart with a screwdriver. There’s a good reason why we keep those up out of reach….

Family support is one of the most important things a work at home parent can have. Without that, it’s much harder to feel good about what you’re doing, or even to get things done.

And while you may have trouble from your spouse about all the time you spend working at home (if he or she is not supportive), the ones who often have the hardest time understanding what it is you do and why you do it are your younger children.

In my family, my kids are currently 6 and 3. They take my working at home pretty much for granted. My daughter even assumes that it’s a part of my duties as a Mommy.

That doesn’t mean they always like it.

Even my 6 year old only has so much of a concept of what money is for, after all. She can count coins and sometimes gets to spend her own money for a treat at the store, but that doesn’t mean she gets it. Talking to them about the need we have for Mommy to earn money from home doesn’t really explain anything to them.

Set Work Hours

One of the things that I’ve found can really help is setting up work hours. The best times are when the kids aren’t home or are sleeping, as then you aren’t having to explain anything. You just work.

But often that really isn’t enough to get everything done.

I’m lucky to have two computers, side by side. This allows me to work more hours by picking times when my daughter is at school and my son wants to play on the other one. He’s pretty content to let me work then, while he plays with Curious George on PBS Kids, or has fun on Starfall.

Make Time for the Kids

Aside from that, it’s by cooperation. I do like to be willing to be hauled off by my kids to play or just snuggle. My son is big on that. He’ll haul me off to my room or the couch because he just wants to be held. And to play Tickle Spider. He loves those Tickle Spiders.

Even on your busiest days you can make time for something special. Sometimes I’ll announce that dinner will be a picnic rather than eaten at the table. That’s generally in the back yard, as southern California weather tends to be cooperative. It’s a treat for the kids that takes very little extra time out of a busy working day. And if the weather doesn’t cooperate, there’s always the old blanket on the living room floor routine.

Don’t Let Every Day Be Too Busy

If you’re trying to get a business going, trying to get enough hours at your work at home job, or just trying to keep up with something you’ve been doing a while, it’s easy to let your days be long and overwhelming.

Some of that is perfectly reasonable. Doubly so if money is tight and that’s the only way you can earn enough to keep your family afloat financially. Despite the feelings of guilt you may have, sometimes you do just have to tell the kids that this is the way it needs to be for the moment.

The younger they are, the harder that is to get across. It’s hard if daytime hours are the only ones that really work for what you need to do, too. You don’t always get to sacrifice sleep to catch up on work.

But do your best. Talk to them about what you’re doing and why, at age appropriate levels. Get them involved, even if only in a pretend way. The younger they are, the more things they will accept as helping when it’s really just busy work. Younger kids can also just enjoy pretending to work as you do.

When my kids were really small, an old keyboard with the cord removed was one of my best tools for this. They could type just like I did. They did play work as Mommy did real work.

Get Help When You Need It

Working at home with the kids in the house just doesn’t work out sometimes. That’s a simple reality. It may have been your goal to be there with the kids as you work, but there’s nothing wrong with getting some help if things just don’t really work out.

Playdates can be a huge help. The kids go off to a friend’s house and you get quiet. You’ll have to reciprocate, but it still helps.

Paid care can also be necessary. This can be as simple as having an older child come over to be a Mother’s Helper while you work, or you can pay a regular daycare. It’s not easy letting a part of the income you’re earning from home go to these expenses, but it can make a big difference. And yes it can feel contrary to the reason why you’re working at home.

Remember Why You’re Working at Home

In the hunt for success, sometimes you may forget why you started working at home in the first place. Many work at home jobs and home businesses take a lot of time out of your day.

Try not to let your work get completely in the way of being a parent during the day. Set a timer if you need a reminder to go play with the kids. Set aside a day or two a week for just family time – no working!

Play.

You don’t have to be a Super Mom. Not everything needs to be done perfectly.

Some days you will need to just tell your kids to go play on their own. Don’t feel bad about that. Just think about how often your parents sent you out to play while you were growing up. Odds are it was a lot. Even fairly young children can learn to play without you hovering over them or being immediately involved. Just keep it all appropriate to the age of your kids and things will turn out fine.

We’re still on a really tight budget here. There’s just so much to recover from after my husband was out of work for so long. I don’t exactly trust to the stability of his new job either, as it’s in the travel industry. Not exactly prime for this kind of economy.

One thing I do right now is to buy whole chicken, rather than just boneless or bone-in parts. The initial cooking can take a bit of extra effort, but the savings makes it well worthwhile. Sale prices on the whole chickens are less than sale prices on the various parts.

Thank goodness whole doesn’t include head or feet, though! Not quite ready to deal with that much.

One chicken means several meals. The first one is your basic roasted chicken. My favorite is a slow roasted variety that takes about 5 hours in the oven. Not something to do on a really hot day, even though the temperature is low. The chicken is rubbed all over with seasonings, stuffed with garlic and/or onions, and cooked at 250 degrees F. Comes out very tender.

The leftovers are currently sufficient for dinner a second night, although I don’t expect that trend to last much longer, as the kids are getting bigger. But they can also be used for lunches. Leftover chicken goes great in salads, for example.

Next comes the homemade chicken soup. I don’t necessarily make this right away; the leftovers go just fine in the freezer so I can save them for when the weather is right for chicken soup.

These meals come out to be very inexpensive. They also taste really great. The amount of chicken soup I make in each batch lasts for several meals, and my daughter has often enjoyed it in a Thermos at school. Sometimes I even freeze excess.

Halloween is less than two weeks away. It’s time to hurry up and get the costumes and candy the rest of the way ready.

Are you doing anything for your home business with the holiday? Some people do.

Halloween can be a great time to meet the other parents in your area. It’s quick, and the kids won’t let them stay and talk for long when they have candy on their minds, but you can prepare for that.

One idea is to attach a business card to the candy you give out. You can use a bit of tape or staple it, being careful not to puncture the part of the wrapper where the candy actually is.

Another is to put business card and candy into little baggies. These can look cute and are a great way to control how many pieces go to each kid if you’re offering more than one piece per child.

You could also have something ready just for the parents. They probably won’t be interested in just a business card, but you could take any of the above ideas and have a special bowl for parents, keeping the plain treats for the kids.

Key, in my opinion, is to not overdo it. Don’t do adverting that takes away from the fun of the holiday. Everyone’s focus should be on having fun. But if you can get something to go home with them you may be able to pick up some new clients.

Playing with shadows is easy. You don’t have to get out any equipment, although you can.

Kids can make letters with their bodies, learn how to make animal shapes with their fingers or try to make it look as though they’re doing something they normally can’t do. All you need is some sunlight making a long enough shadow to see.

If you want to get fancy, you can hang up a sheet for the kids’ shadows, with an audience on the other side. Add in some dressup clothes and props, and they really can put on a play with their shadows.

This can be a spontaneous game anywhere, not just at home. You can make a game of calling out to the kids to make letters with their shadow just about any time.

I came across an article today on CNN on living paycheck to paycheck. So far as I can see, the tips it gives are pretty typical. Give up the luxuries such as eating out or cutting back on transportation costs. Great ideas if you have those expenses, but what if you don’t?

I’ve written in the past on cutting back further yet when you’ve already cut your budget way back. Sometimes you face tough decisions when you’re trying to get by financially.

There are even more painful cuts you can make that sometimes come up necessary. I know how close my husband and I came to having to move in with his parents when he lost his job, for example. Moving in with someone else or taking on a roommate is a terrible cut to have to make, but sometimes it’s what you have to do. Thank goodness we scraped by.

I am of course a fan of finding ways to earn more money. That’s why I work from home, after all. It’s something you can do without giving up your current job. The start is tough but if you can stick it out, it may turn out to be very worthwhile.

If not, you’ve at least given it a try rather than insisting on being stuck in the same old rut.

There’s no one tip that will work for every situation. You may not be able to move in with family for one reason or another, for example. Or you may not have the space to rent to a roommate. You might even be unable to move to a more affordable place. That’s just reality.

But that doesn’t mean give up. “I can’t do it” isn’t a good enough excuse. Better is to try, even if you fail, even if you risk making things slightly worse. Don’t take so much risk working at home that you make things extremely much worse if you fail, but if you’ve only made things slightly worse by losing some time and money, you’ve still gained in experience. You might just succeed the next time.

At least nothing’s dangerously close so far this year. But the scent of smoke is in the air, and plenty of fires burning in the county, so a bit of awareness is a good thing.

It’s kind of interesting that my husband says there were far fewer kids than usual at school today when he dropped our daughter off this morning. Since it is also cold and flu season, I’m wondering if a bug is going around. Nothing to evacuate for around here, at least not in elementary school range. Only nearby fire I know about is off on the other side of town, and it hadn’t started that early.