"[My 4-year-old daughter, Julia,] usually hangs out with me
in the office," explains Terri Sarappo, owner of Sarappo Media
Services, a media planning and buying firm in Belmont, California.
"She draws or plays school while I'm here." To avoid
problems, Sarappo has established some rules. "I haven't
had any major problems with my equipment because I don't let
her play around my computer when I'm not here. She tried to put
her apple juice on my desk yesterday but was quickly told that
wouldn't work."
However, Sarappo admits that it's not always easy having her
young daughter in her office. "The hardest thing is to keep
her quiet when clients are on the phone," says Sarappo, who
does have Julia spend some time in day care. "When I was doing
this last year when she was three, she screamed, 'Get off the
phone and play Barbies with me.' Work stopped and she went off
to daycare at that moment."
Although Julia now understands that when mommy's on the
phone, talking is forbidden, she still "loves to come in and
distract me while I'm working," says Sarappo.
"She'll report on what she's doing on a
minute-by-minute basis or keep interrupting me to ask for help with
what she is doing. That makes work take twice as long," says
Terri. For example, it once took Sarappo several hours to finish a
spreadsheet for a client. Although she charges by the hour, Sarappo
only charged the client for two hours. "That was a more
accurate estimate of what the job would have cost without Julia
around."
Content Continues Below
Another Julia-created challenge: "Running out of supplies,
especially paper and file folders, which she uses for
artwork," Sarappo says. "Sometimes I have to stop and run
to Staples at the last minute because there's not enough paper
left to receive faxes or print reports.
"One of the things I try to teach her is to respect work.
She understands that we work to get money, and if she's good, I
can continue to work here instead of at an office. She likes that.
I also bought her a present from the Lillian Vernon catalog and
told her it was because I got paid for a job. Now she wants me to
work so we get her more things!"
Sarappo took the time to explain these economical basics to her
young daughter, she says, "[because] I just thought it was
important to show her that there was something in it for her as
well: More time with mom because I no longer work full time, and I
share the wealth when a project is finished."
Page
1 | 2 |
3 |
4 