Most people would kill to work from home. Not me.

Most people in my position would consider the opportunity to work from home to be a blessing. But not me. I fought it hard. I did not want to work from home.

I wanted to be one of those hard-working, busy, ambitious and successful women I’d always worshipped from movies like Working Girl and Newsroom. I wanted to get up each day, race around getting everybody dressed and fed, and then turn up to an awesome office job and achieve.

Achieve, achieve, achieve!

Except the reality was a little different for me. Coming from a background in radio where I’d never worked 9 to 5 like, ever, it was quite a jolt to suddenly be facing days in an office, albeit at reduced hours that allowed me to do the school run.

I really struggled with it and I was so disappointed in myself. This was my dream. And I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I should.

This post is part of our “With Change Comes Opportunity” series, brought to you in partnership with Youi. 

Part of the reason I was struggling so badly was not only because I wasn’t used to working normal hours, but also because I’d been at home with my kids for so long. And one of whom has severe food allergies. If he eats egg or nuts he stops breathing. Simple as that.

So the anxiety I was experiencing at being so far away from him each day was really difficult to cope with.

It all became too much.

But I was never going to admit it. I wasn’t going to be the one to wave the white flag of surrender. I’d been offered the opportunity to work from home once before and turned it down, much to my husband’s shock.

“You’re mad. Do you know how many people would kill for this opportunity?!?”

And he was right. But I clung on to the Working Girl dream for a few months longer before I accepted the opportunity and for the past year, I have been working from home, very happily.

Working in slippers – bliss.

Every now and then I do feel a pang of longing to go into the office but I’d rather struggle with those feelings than with the anxiety that came with getting to the office each day. Working from home is a dream. It’s too good. And I think that was part of the problem.

Working from home and doing the sort of work I do doesn’t feel like work at all. It feels like fun. It feels relaxing.

Isn’t real work meant to be hard and plagued with stress?

If I’m so happy and relaxed and enjoying myself so much, do I even have a real job?

Yes I do – just a really, really good one.

Working from home. Living the dream.

Now I have completely embraced my work-from-home status and I can’t ever see myself not working from home. I am really living the dream. I set my own hours, my work life and home life can mingle and get all mixed up as much as I like, I have a bit of a routine going each week, I have my work space all set up in the kitchen and I’ve never been more relaxed.

I don’t have to worry about the work commute anymore. I can’t believe how much money I save on travel – I hardly ever drive except around my local area when I am being my children’s taxi and I’m always home to take a delivery of any packages that might arrive.

No more struggle to find time to pick up packages from my local post office. That was so annoying. I almost stopped shopping online…almost.

So I now work from home and some days, when I don’t have to do the school run, I throw on my robe and stay that way.

I can dash to the school at a moment’s notice if I’ve forgotten to pack the boys morning tea (which happened just last week). I had a funny feeling I’d forgotten to put their brown bags in their school bags and went to the school to check and sure enough…

Then I was back home to get stuck into work on my kitchen table until the kids arrived home.

I do have to pinch myself from time to time. Yep, I’m awake.

Maybe I’ll do the whole Working Girl thing later, some day.

Here is a little peak into what working in the Mamamia office every day looks like (not QUITE as fun as working from home, but pretty close)

With change comes opportunity. Going from driving to work every day to working from home could save you a lot on your car insurance with Youi.

At Youi, we ask and listen rather than make assumptions. We know it’s important to understand you and how you use your car so you only pay for car insurance that you need. For car insurance that gets how you use or don’t use your car, give Youi a try – it’s smart and could save you lots.

Why not make the switch today? Call 13 YOUI or got to youi.com.au