As a work-at-home mom, I sometimes don’t get the quiet that would make my work environment ideal for me. It seems that there is always something, or somebody making noise at our house. With summer just around the corner, I expect that the noise will only increase.
I’m lucky. I’m one of those people that can tune out the irrelevant sounds around me and focus in on the task at hand. Of course, sometimes this leads to a kid standing in front of me going, “Mom, Mom, Mom … ”
(I’ve been trying to train the kids not to disturb me when I’m working unless they are bleeding or in imminent danger.)
What about you? How noisy, or quiet, would your preferred work environment be? How noisy, or quiet, is your actual work environment?
Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.
12 responses so far ↓
1 Jeanne Dininni // May 16, 2007 at
Hi, Laura!
I must admit, I like my work environment quiet–but that doesn’t mean I always get to have it that way! In our small apartment, my workspace is in our living room–right next to the TV, in fact! Thank God we don’t have cable!
My 18-year-old son does like his video games, though! But I’m blessed in that he’s very cooperative and will turn the volume down very low when I’m working–even though he prefers it to be louder and more dramatic.
Being out in the main traffic area does have other disadvantages, as well: since you are accessible to everyone who enters the room, they tend to feel that they can converse with you as if you were just sitting around relaxing. Oh, the joys of the freelance writing life! But I wouldn’t have it any other way–except maybe in my own office!
Your writing friend,
Jeanne
2 Mihaela Lica // May 16, 2007 at
I’m not a mom… But my boyfriend acts often as a baby. Does that count?
I work at home, in a very romantic and quiet German village. The kids next door are pretty noisy when the weather is fine and they get the chance to play by the pool. But here it rains a lot so sunny days are rare and I don’t hear the laughter of the kids as often as I’d like to.
I don’t have a TV (OK, I do, but I refuse to use it) so there are no distractions coming from there either. I do have 2 cell phones though… ringing too often. But that’s a good thing. I’ll start worrying if they stop ringing. Mmm… am I forgetting something?
3 alicia // May 16, 2007 at
I can handle the television in the other room or music in my office – but neither can be very loud. (No kids, so that helps.)
4 Matt Keegan // May 17, 2007 at
School lets out three weeks from today, but I haven’t even begun to imagine how noisy it will be here. Our summer days are blasted hot, so the kids do not play outside at all. Instead, trips to the pool or some other “cooling off” activity are in order.
We also have some “camp time” coming which means it will be very quite here for at least one week.
I heard the new library has internet access too. I probably will be familiarizing myself with that place too!
5 Paula Neal Mooney // May 17, 2007 at
I like things pretty quiet, especially when I need to focus on a hard piece.
But I can pretty much write even when my kids are here — both of us screaming and yelling or playing around and goofing off as the case may be.
They say most women prefer quiet.
6 meleah rebeccah // May 17, 2007 at
silence. is. the. best.
I cannot write when I am surrounded by noise, or distractions.
Thank G-d my son knows the “rules” about how to behave when mommy is writting.
7 Angela Giles Klocke // May 17, 2007 at
Now…when you say “quiet,” you mean…what? Is this a new word? Some new invention? Weird. 😀
8 Harmony // May 17, 2007 at
I prefer quiet but don’t get it so I work in chaos 🙂 The count down to kindergarten begins!
9 laura // May 18, 2007 at
Jeanne – It’s fortunate your son is willing to turn the volume down on the video games, they can be quite nosy. There is an extra computer in my “office” (which is actually the unused breakfast nook in our house). Sometimes the kids come in and try to play computer games on it while I am working — which is a big no, no in our house.
Mihaela – I’m impressed with your description, it sounds quite idyllic. No TV is a good idea — we tried it for a few years, but it didn’t stick.
Alicia – You sound like you might be able to tune out distractions. I usually can, but the other day the city came and used a jack hammer to make a big hole in the street. Now, that was noisy!
Matt – Your comment makes me laugh. Your setup sounds very much like mine, except we unwisely scheduled our kids just far enough apart so that they would never be at camp during the same week!
Hi Paula – You do some amazing writing so you must be good at tuning things out. Where did you find the statistic about women preferring quiet?
Welcome Mealah Rebeccah – It sounds like you are fortunate to have trained your son well.
Angela – The mark of a true Mom, you can’t even remember what quiet is like. (I used to feel that way about sleep.)
Hi Harmony – You accomplish so much without kindergarten, I imagine things will really take off once you get those concentrated hours of quiet.
10 Nikki // May 19, 2007 at
I for one, love to have music playing. It has to be a certain type of music though – stuff that inspires me. I just can’t listen to the radio. Kids or people talking to me, even regular household background noise distracts me… Explains why I don’t get a lot done.
11 Laura // May 19, 2007 at
Hi Nikki!
I knew that there had to be a music person out there somewhere.
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