What a Mom Takes with Her to the Office

Last week, I decided I couldn’t handle this new itinerant work style and set up a home office at my parent’s house. I have taken pride in being self-sufficient since I was in college, so this was quite a reversal for me; I never thought I’d be moving back in with my parents, even if just during the work day. But, doing it made sense – the house is completely empty except for two kitties during the day since my mom is at my house taking care of my two boys. And, I can’t afford to rent space given the MomsOutLoud.com shoestring I’m on.

Being a true pragmatist, I figured officing at Mom’s was my best option.

As I packed my briefcase the evening before I was going to become an office squatter in her guest bedroom, I gathered a few essential items.

And then, I took a picture, because the items seemed to me to be just what any Mom would take to her office.

Some of the items are not unusual – quite unisex, in fact: laptop, power cord, notebook, pen, business cards and coffee mug, a couple of reminder stickies, and a newspaper article I saw in my hometown weekly paper that sparked a thought for a blog entry (to come later).

But most are purely “Mom”:

• Pictures of my boys
• Good-smelling hand soap (current favorite: Bath & Body Works Sensual Amber. Yummy yummy.)
• Big bottle of hand lotion (current favorite: Aveeno Naturals. Just the right richness, not greasy.)
• A lint roller and refill (did I mention there are two office kitties?)
• Hair scrunchies – on the very slight chance I find myself at the office without a ponytail
• A basket to put the lotion and lint roller, plus whatever else I decide I forgot, into to keep the guest bath from getting cluttered

I know these are purely Mom items for several reasons:

• It took my husband 6 months after the birth of our second son to take a picture of our new boy into his office at work, and then only after one of the women in his office (thanks, Naomi!) confiscated a picture of us as a family of three and drew in an additional baby. And I consider him a great, involved, and loving Dad!
• Would any man you know be caught red-handed with special hand soap or lotion? Or scrunchies?
• My husband’s answer to bathroom organization is shoving everything under the sink. Of course, when all you do is jump in and out of the shower, using an all purpose shampoo/bath wash combo, beyond which the personal grooming routine is brushing teeth and shaving….well, there’s just not that many things to keep track of.

So….before I put all of these items into my bag to take over to my new office, I took a picture, thinking others might appreciate laughing at what makes us uniquely women! I sure did.