The days when having a career meant 9 to 5 in an office, with a chauvinistic male boss are thankfully, long gone. The Internet and web-based software applications today mean that it is easier than ever for mothers (yes, and others) to remain in their homes, caring for their children, while they continue a career and maintain their career goals. The day of the "mommy track" is (or should be) over.

The Internet’s ubiquitous presence can allow home workers the ability to have a virtual office from anywhere they happen to be. Today, with a laptop and a cell phone, it is just as easy to serve client needs or work on a project from a picnic table in the park watching the kids play as it is from a traditional office.

The question is, are managers willing to allow their staff this freedom? I have been promoting "work from home" for years -- since I saw a modem for the first time during my middle school years. My mother was a work at home mom, efficiently running Dad’s pest control company from a spare bedroom in our home. She set me a wonderful example of how working from home can, and should, work. And that was back in the 70s -- before the Internet, before cordless phones, before PCs. She ran the business efficiently, ran our home efficiently, kept things reasonably clean, had snacks for us after school, prepared a home-cooked dinner every night, and cared for her six children.

With the tools at our fingertips today, it is out of step to assume that the modern mother must make a choice between a career and her children. Some mothers will always choose not to be in a paying position during their children’s childhoods -- after all, motherhood in and of itself is a strenuous full time, underappreciated, job. Others will always need the social stimulation of a busy office. But for mothers who want to be home with their precious little ones, but who must earn a living for their family, or who can’t make ends meet, isn’t it time to provide work from home jobs that pay well?

I have held a large number of clerical positions, from office manager to credit manager to medical biller for a medium sized hospital. In every administrative or clerical position I’ve ever held, the question I’ve always had is, "Why can’t I do this at home?"

At the hospital in particular, where I worked in a "bullpen" without even the imagined privacy of cubical walls, I would have to bring a portable CD player or radio to work with headphones in order to concentrate on my work. (This was in the pre-Ipod days.) There was almost nothing I was doing there that I couldn’t have done more efficiently from a home office -- with no concerns about office politics, the very thing I have despised the most about every job I’ve ever held. I was not allowed to work from home, though -- because I could not be supervised from a remote location (so said my boss).

I disagreed with her then, and even more strenuously now.

Let’s make the workplace more mom-friendly.

Donna Vazquez is the owner of Busy Bee Virtual Assistance, located in Pleasant Grove, Utah. She is available to speak to groups about the advantages of virtual assistance and virtual staffing, both from the business owner’s and contractor’s point of view. She is a mother of five children, a music director for her church, and a member of the world’s largest women’s organization. Contact her today to find out how she can help you.