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Dee was "boasting" to a group of friends about how, in the past year, she had only forgotten to pick up one of her children from school one time-a nearly perfect record! Her peers laughed nervously and shook their heads in understanding. Dee is the mother of 4 young kids (who attend 3 different schools, by the way) as well as a full-time realtor. Like the women she was talking to, Dee has opted to be her own boss in order to be available to take her children to school, pick them up, attend their ballet recitals and soccer games, supervise playdates, etc.
Being self-employed promises flexibility-and it delivers. The only catch is that, for so many women like Dee-particularly mothers-the flexibility exists not within the traditional eight-hour workday, but rather a 24-hour workday within a seven-day work week. Dee calls it the slice and carve lifestyle. Each day is a patchwork of tasks related to the care and feeding of children, work and home. Drop the kids at school, show four homes to a potential buyer, make sales calls, go to a fabric store to buy material for the 3rd Grade Pageant costumes, attend realty team meeting, get bids to re-tile the kitchen, pick up kids, stop at grocery store, make dinner, give baths, read bedtime stories, participate in conference call with 3rd grade room mothers, complete paperwork for new listing, return emails, do laundry, etc.
Technology that allows us the flexibility to do almost anything, anytime, anywhere has shattered the traditional separation of work life and home life. It makes it possible to both be there for our children and have a business. Such technology has not only made the slice and carve lifestyle possible, it has also made it look easier than it is. Other than learning to thrive without sleep, I don't have any quick fixes for the situation in which many of us find ourselves. My only point is to raise awareness-that "flexibility" is liberating but that it also has a downside, that we must each take on the challenge to create our own work/life boundaries in ways we never had to in the past, and that, despite the fact that it may look to others as if we are either dabbling at business or parenting or both, the reality is that many of us are working two full-time jobs-one of which has always been a 24/7 gig.
