Working from home or owning your own business can provide flexibility in one’s day and what parent of school-age children doesn’t need that? It can be a challenge though—one that takes planning, discipline, and an ability to “go with the flow” to make it work well. We asked a few locals who do just that for their best tips.
Christina Momdjian works from home in business-to-business sales for a spice brand that sells products nationally. While her territory is all of California, she regularly has meetings and correspondence with colleagues from around the country in different time zones. For her, that’s mostly good. She can get an early start to her day before her four-year-old daughter is awake. But her husband Marty, an advisor in the healthcare IT field, also works from home and finds himself in meetings and conversations that can come up spontaneously. They have to plan to make it work.
“If you can have a network of support, that’s really important. We literally moved to be close to our parents,” said Momdjian, whose mom lives locally and mother-in-law in Los Angeles.
Being organized also is key, she said. “On Sunday, prioritize what you’re going to do for the week, and be flexible. When you have kids and two working adults, it takes twice as long to do the dishes, so don’t. We keep a list of cheap go-tos for eating out on a day we just cannot handle it all.”
For the Momdjians, these small changes make working from home worthwhile.“When we were thinking about switching schools, I was able to go for a tour and orientation at 3 o’ clock and take my phone to keep an eye on things,” she said. “When I need to do something during the day with my family, I can do that. Sometimes it lends itself to a much longer than an 8-hour day, but the tradeoff is that I can do what I need to do.”
For the Brady-Favaloro family, communication and teamwork with her husband Cosimo are the keys to making two hectic schedules work. According to Kelly: “We communicate our schedules at the beginning of each week and then touch base daily. We both have schedules that can change on a whim so we have to be flexible and help each other out. In general he does drop-offs and I do pick-ups. This has really changed as we have added more kids to our gang since now we have more activities to get to.”
In March, Rachelle Davi-Razzeca left her family’s real estate business to branch out on her own and help support other moms through her Local Connection Group at Keller-Williams. To build her business, she said, “I had to leverage everything. Not everyone is lucky to leverage grandparents, but I had to figure out how to run my business and take care of the kids.”
Davi-Razzeca literally works from anywhere she is—that could be from home, her car, an office in Salinas or Carmel, and even lakeside while on vacation.
Since her husband is a harbormaster in Moss Landing and has to stay nearby, that’s where they live. Yet their three kids, ages 15, 11, and soon-to-be 7, attend school in Salinas and Spreckels. They’re also active with team sports.
When working at home, Davi-Razzeca pointed out there are many things that compete for her time: laundry, dishes, cleaning, and walking the dog beckon. Her travel down the peninsula, inland to Salinas and Spreckels for school drop off, and south to the Carmel office can make for busy days too. To manage, she hired a housecleaner twice a month. She also makes sure to take care of herself and recommends other working parents make time to do the same.
“I try to do what I call Fabulous Fridays where I walk on the beach, get a pedicure, take myself out to lunch, and sometimes get a massage,” she said.
That gift of time away from work and responsibilities at home is important. “You just have to take that time to walk away. Give yourself grace. Forgive yourself for not being perfect because none of us are! We are doing the best we can!” She also shared that having a network of parents helping one another can lighten the load.
Brady-Favaloro stresses that parents don’t have to do it all and the importance of outsourcing when possible. She says: “I am so lucky to have a wonderful staff who take pride in their work and who I fully trust to handle things if I am out of town or need to give more to my kids. For example, this past year my kids were really needing more of me and I was getting pretty overwhelmed with all my responsibilities. After many discussions with myself, my husband and my mom, I decided to take a step back from coaching the competitive team so that I could focus more of my time and attention on my family and other parts of the business. One of my staff members took over my coaching position and did a wonderful job.”
Now that’s creative problem-solving!
Wendy J. Rosenthal is a writer, educator, and graduate student for an MA in Counseling and PPS Credential in School Counseling. She was appointed by State Superintendent Tony Thurmond to serve on his Parent Advisory Council. She and her two teens reside in Salinas with their rescue pup Sherman.
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