When Your Husband Works From Home

I have read many books and blog posts about how to be a good wife.  One common thing about these books and blog posts is that you need to have dinner on the table, the house clean, the children fed, and you need to be at the door ready with a kiss when your husband comes home from work – if that is what he likes of course!  But what if your husband works from home, like mine does?  Nothing really prepared me for having a work from home husband so I hope I can prepare you for what you are about to experience!

Before we get started I want to mention that I wrote this with the idea that you are (or will be) a stay at home wife, like me.  I wrote this post from experiences!

Let’s just start off by saying, when your husband works from home, he will see all sides of your craziness.  You don’t get to do some last minute cleaning before he comes home, you have to make a bunch of meals and snacks, and sometimes, you just need to focus on helping him other than doing the dishes.  I’m going to list what differences you should expect and how to handle them!

He doesn’t come home from work – While this is great, it is also very different.  Like I said before, books and blogs about marriage always give tips on how to welcome your husband home when he gets home from work.  But what if he is already home?  Things that my husband love is getting little encouragements throughout the day.  So instead of welcoming your husband home at the end of the day, make him feel special all day when he takes little breaks.  For example, when you eat lunch together, ask him how work is going and encourage him to keep up the great work!  Make him feel welcome in his home 24/7.

There is no set time for dinner – Many women have to have dinner on the table when their husbands walks in the door to make them feel loved and happy.  But when your husband works from home, you don’t have to have a set time that dinner needs to be on the table (although it might be a good idea to).  I usually just ask my husband when he is hungry and if he is… well, I make dinner!  This brings up the idea that you usually have to make at least 2 meals a day.  Meal planning is key for this one!  I meal plan for two weeks and we go shopping on Sunday every other week.  It saves us money, time, and it really helps me with stress!  Everybody wins!

The house gets messy when he is around – It’s not that my husband is messy… he’s just… yeah he is messy.  In the morning there will be a pile of clothes on the bathroom floor after his shower and some new dishes in the sink after breakfast… lunch… and dinner!  I try to be thankful for these things of course because that means he is alive and home with me!  When there are two people in the house things start to pile up and you need to stay on top of your chores.  Of course things are different with kids in the house!  You husband will also witness your crazy moments when the house looks a little a pig sty and you clean like a stressed out lunatic.

Sometimes you sleep in and get lazy – My husband gets to choose his own hours, so we often stay up too late and then sleep in too late (I am writing this blog at 11:30 because my husband is working late because we slept in…).  This throws off our whole schedule and messes up my husbands energy and he gets less work done.  You need to try to make sure you keep a consistent schedule in order to keep you and your husband energized and ready for the day!  While we are still working on this, we try to go to bed at 11 p.m and wake up at 9 a.m (we need a lot of sleep to battle Lyme Disease).

You are with each other ALL the time – I have been away from my husband only a few hours since we have been married (which has not been a very long time, don’t worry).  We are always together!  While sometimes this can cause us to go crazy, we absolutely love it!  When he has to go to a job on site, I miss him and wish he was home (of course sometimes when he is home I wish he was gone to an on site job).  You will witness each other’s crazy sides.  He will get stressed out about work and you will get stressed out about cleaning (or work, or school, or whatever else).  Just remember that tomorrow will worry about itself (Matt. 6:34)!

Sometime there might be dishes in the sink or floors to be swept, but your husband might really need your help… like right NOW – Sometimes my husband needs help with work, or he needs a drink, or he wants lunch, or he just wants some attention.  Whatever it is I always try to drop what I am doing and take care of his needs first.  When I help him, he feels loved and he can focus better.  I may need to leave behind some dishes in the sink or put off writing an essay, but those things will have to wait because my husband comes first (1 Peter 3:1)!

Over all, I love that my husband works from home.  Being together every day is wonderful!  It can be stressful but I would not change it for the world.  He will probably not always be able to stay home we are definitely enjoying this time and are very thankful that we can start out our marriage this way!
If you have a stay at home husband, what are some tips you would like to pass along?