Tikkabik

There's one big problem with working from home when you have kids, and that's that when they're home from school, they're underfoot. Even if I try to hide in my office they'll find reasons to come downstairs to ask me questions, petition for something, or complain about the unfair treatment they're receiving at the hands of their siblings.

So the toughest months for me to manage are unquestionably June through August, when the kids are home all the time.

It makes me painfully aware that there's absolutely no way I could be a househusband, nor can I be expected to regularly watch the kids after school, if Bonnie ultimately gets a job that will keep her out of the house longer than the school day -- we'd have to do something else, whether it'd be hire a sitter or enroll them at the Boys and Girls Club, I don't know, but something.

With one kid it's totally manageable. With two, it's difficult. With three, it's impossible. There's something about the dynamic of three kids together that creates almost total chaos, noise and destruction almost constantly.

So it's with tremendous joy and relief that I find us once again at the tail-end of Labor Day weekend. The kids go back to school tomorrow and I'll once again have the house to myself, able to work and function in relative peace and quiet, at least until the next vacation.

I understand that the kids aren't happy about it, and I can certainly relate -- I can't ever remember a time when I was a kid that I really looked forward to going back to school. But as an adult, and as their parent, I'm delighted.

It also helps that we've had a string of glorious late summer/early fall New England weather -- and the forecasters are saying that it will stay unbroken for some time to come.