Work From Home Couple

Most people consider themselves lucky if they get to work from home one or two days a week.

Me? I get to work from home any day I like. That’s one of the benefits of working as a freelance writer, editor and comic book writer.

But I have it even better. My wife, Lynn, works from home, too. She’s a part-time costume designer for local theaters in our suburb of Chicago.

It’s a good life. I wake up early and write as much as I can before our 1-year-old son wakes up. After my wife and I get our older son — he’s 9, almost in double digits! — off to school, we decide who’ll be watching our youngest at what times during the day. It mostly depends on who’s busiest.

We don’t worry about long commutes or, hardly, gas prices. We’re always available to help out in our older son’s classroom. And neither of us misses the office gossip.

But that’s not to say our arrangement is perfect. There are some surprising challenges when both you and your spouse work from home, some that we were not at all prepared for.

The goal of this blog is share both the ups and downs of life when both you and your partner work from home. I’m lucky; My wife is a wise and patient soul. Hopefully, she can say the same about me. Here’s my first piece of advice: Unless you really like spending time — lots of it — with your spouse, don’t try this arrangement. But if you do, and if you like spending loads of quality time with your kids, too, then by all means, do everything you can to arrange your life so that both you and your partner work from home.

Personally, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I think we’d all be more productive if we could spend less time in an office and more time in our homes.

So check back. I hope to adopt this blog on a fairly regular basis with suggestions, stories and, of course, my thoughts on sharing a home with a fellow work-from-homer.

(And if you like comic books, be sure to check out my other Today.com blog, http://indycomicbooks.today.com.)