Business Phone Etiquitte

Why is it that as soon as you get on the phone you become the center of attention for your kids? There are only about three people that I will take business calls from when I'm at home with my children. These people have their own children and understand the challenges of working out of your home.

I strive to run a very professional firm, but I certainly struggled with that today. I got a call this afternoon from one of those few people I take calls from with kids around. I should have know it was not gong to go as smoothly as it does when we're outside. My son had not napped in three days and had been whining since 8am this morning. My daughter actually had napped and just finished a snack, so she should have been fine, right? Wrong. Instead, as soon as I got on the phone I had both of them standing at my feet crying to be picked up. As I'm trying to talk about an upcoming project, I'm hurriedly grabbing the bowl of grapes out of the refrigerator to try and distract them. My son is trying to reach into the bowl on the counter to pick off the grapes as I'm now rummaging for a knife to cut-up my daughter's grapes. The grapes tide them over for a few minutes. We continue discussing the client's problem and what we're trying to accomplish there when my dynamic duo are at it again. this time I try to distract them by getting them to play with their football. This works for a few more minutes until my son finds his drum. He's now playing his drum and following me around the house. I'm trying to stay a room ahead of him so I can try to wrap up my conversation. Seven minutes and 40 seconds after answering the phone, I hang-up the phone, I turn around to see both kids heading off to play in their kitchen. I'm pretty sure I saw them glancing back at me smiling to each other.

So while today was not one of my best mom/ceo balance days, hey, we made it through the day. I'm sure things will smooth out after the holidays when Naomi comes back. (Naomi is the wonderful girl who watches my kids while I work - she is a huge part of why I can do what I do.) In the meantime, I'm trying to keep to e-mails at night.